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PRINCETON,     N.    J. 


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BV  2570  .R36  1893 
Rankin,  William. 
Handbook  and  incidents  of 
sheij      foreign  missions  of  the 


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HANDBOOK  AND  INCIDENTS 


FOREIGN    MISSIONS 


PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH, 


u.  s.  A. 


M^ 


william'^rankin. 


LATE    TREASURER. 


Newark,  N.  J.  : 
W.  H.  Shurts,  874-876  Broad  Street. 

1893. 


PREFACE. 

Much  that  is  herein  contained  has  recently  appeared  in 
Church  periodicals,  and  is  republished  in  book  form  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  President  and  Secretaries  of  our  Foreign  Board. 
The  "Incidents"  may  furnish  some  threads  to  be  woven  into 
the  history  of  the  Board  when  hereafter  by  some  competent 
hand  it  shall  be  written.  Selections  from  my  published  ad- 
dresses are  included  for  their  historical  interest.  The  whole 
edition  is  donated  to  the  Foreign  Board,  save  the  copies  re- 
served for  private  distribution.  I  am  happy  to  add  that  while 
this  miscellaneous  collection  is  passing  through  the  press  a  con- 
densed history  of  Presbyterian  missions  down  to  .the  organiza- 
tion of  our  Foreign  Board  in  1837,  written  by  Dr,  Ashbel 
Green,  and  now  out  of  print,  has  been  re-published  by  A.  D. 
F.  Randolph  &  Company,  with  valuable  additions  by  my 
esteemed  friend  and  long  co-laborer.  Dr.  John  C.  Lowrie,  Sec- 
retary emeritus. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Historical  Summary,         -----         5 

Constitution  and  Charter,        -             -             -  -              17 

Reunion  Address,  New  Jersey  Synod,       -  -             -       24 

North  India  Missions — Incidents     -               -  "               33 

Central  China  Missions — Incidents,          -  -             -       40 

China  Press,               .             .             .             .  .               50 

Chinese  Missions  in  United  States — Incidents,  -       56 

Siam  and  Laos  Missions — Incidents,              -  -               62 

Japan  Mission — Incidents,             -             -  -             -       69 

African  Missions — Incidents,                -             -  -             75 

Indian  Missions  in  Kansas,  etc. — Incidents,  -             -       84 

Waldensian  Endowment,         -             -             -  -             93 

Address  Before  General  Assembly  in  1880,  -             -       97 

Address  Before  General  Assembly  in  1882,  -            104 

The  Week  of  Prayer,         -             -             -  -                   107 

The  Six  Stuarts,         -             -             -             -  -             no 

Two  Old  Presbyterians,                -             -  -             -      114 

Death  of  Dr.  David  Irving,                -             -  -             116 

Death  of  Rev.  Wm.  Hamilton,           -             -  -              119 

Death  of  Dr.  J  as.  P.  Wilson,        -             -  -             -      121 

Appropriations  for  the  Coming  Year,              -  -              125 

Reminiscense  of  1850,      .             -             .  -                    127 

Letter  of  Resignation,            -             -             -  -             130 
Action  of  the  Board,  Presbytery  and  Gen.  Assembly,      -      131 

Bible  Society  Address,            -             -             -  -             133 


ERRATA. 
Page  64,  for  Casswell  read  Caswell. 
Page  82,  for  Hamel  read  Hamill. 


HISTORICAL  SUMMARY. 

Revised  in  1892. 


"  The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America"  was  organized  by  direction 
of  the  General  Assembly,  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  October 
31st,  1837,  and  the  year  in  which  this  little  Manual  was  first 
published  (1887),  was  its  semi-centennial. 

Its  corporate  existence  dates  from  January,  1852,  under  a 
general  law  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  the  franchise  so 
acquired  became  merged  in  a  special  act  of  the  Legislature, 
which  took  eifect  April  12th,  1862,  and  under  which  its  legal 
powers  and  privileges  are  now  secured.  A  copy  of  this  Act  of 
Incorporation  is  printed  with  each  annual  report.  The  germ 
of  the  Board  antedates  its  organization  by  six  years  in  the 
institution  by  authority  of  the  Synod  of  Pittsburgh  (consti- 
tuted in  1802)  of  the  "Western  Foreign  Mission  Society," 
on  the  theory  of  Church  work  for  Missions.  Its  Executive 
Committee  held  its  first  meeting  of  record,  November  ist,  1831, 
Dr.  Francis  Herron  being  Chairman,  and  Dr.  Elisha  P.  Swift, 
Corresponding  Secretary.  These  officers  and  their  associates 
conducted  this  synodical  mission  work  until  the  Western 
Society  was  merged  in  the  existing  Board.  Under  their  effi- 
cient supervision,  missions  were  planted  in  India  and  in  Africa, 
and  among  Indian  Tribes,  and  measures  were  in  progress  to 
send  the  Gospel  to  China,  while  as  yet  no  door  was  open  for 
its  entrance  into  that  empire.  A  history  of  the  Western  For- 
eign Missionary  Society,  written  by  Dr.  Ashbel  Green,  was 
published  in  1838,  and  is  about  to  be  re-published,  with  ex- 
tended and  valuable  notes  by  Dr.  John  C.  Lowrie. 

Upon  the  organization  of  the  General  Assembly's  Board  the 


6  HISTORICAL    SUMMARY. 

seat  of  its  operations  was  transferred  from  Pittsburgh  to  New 
York,  and  of  necessity  another  Executive  Committee  of  local 
members  was  chosen,  having  Dr.  William  W.  Phillips  as  its 
Chairman.  Its  meetings  were  held  weekly,  and  with  the 
attendance  of  the  chairman  rarely  interrupted  during  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  constituted  a  prominent  factor  in  the  advance  of 
the  work  abroad  and  in  securing  for  it  the  confidence  and 
support  of  the  churches.  Upon  the  death  of  Dr.  Phillips  in 
1S65,  the  chairmanship  was  conferred  upon  Dr.  John  M.  Krebs 
during  the  last  two  years  of  his  life.  He  was  succeeded  by 
Mr.  James  Lenox,  who,  when  the  Executive  Committee,  as 
such,  ceased  to  exist,  in  1870,  became  President  of  the  re- 
organized Board.  In  1873  Mr.  Lenox  resigned  this  office, 
when  Dr.  William  Adams  was  chosen,  and  served  in  it  until 
his  death  in  1880.  He  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  William  M.  Pax- 
ton,  on  whose  removal  to  Princeton,  in  1885,  the  present 
incumbent,  Dr.  John  D.  Wells,  became  his  successor. 

From  its  institution  in  1837  to  the  re-union  the  Board  was 
composed  of  120  members,  selected  by  the  General  Assembly 
from  different  sections  of  the  church,  one-fourth  of  this  mem- 
bership being  chosen  each  year.  The  annual  meetings  were 
held  on  the  ist  Monday  in  May,  when  the  Minutes  of  the 
Executive  Committee  were  reviewed,  the  Secretary's,  and 
Treasurer's  reports  were  presented  and  referred  in  sections  to 
sub-committees,  on  whose  approval  the  whole  was  adopted  as 
the  Report  of  the  Board  to  the  General  Assembly.  At  the 
same  time  also,  the  executive  committee  and  the  officers  were 
elected  for  the  ensuing  year.  Occasionally  an  adjourned 
meeting  was  called  during  the  sessions  of  the  General 
Assembly. 

In  1870  the  membership  of  the  Board  was  reduced  to  fifteen 
by  the  General  Assembly,  and  in  1890  enlarged  to  twenty-one, 
who  are  elected  one-third  annually  by  that  body,  upon  whom 
devolves  all  the  duties  of  the  former  Executive  Committee. 

Each  year  the  Board  elects  its  President  and  Executive 
Officers — the  latter  being  ex- officio  members,  but  by  a  law  of 
the  State  not  entitled  to  vote.     Its  regular  meetings  are  on  the 


HISTORICAL    SUMMARY.  7 

first  and  third  Mondays  of  each  month — the  business  brought 
before  it  is  prepared  by  the  Executive  Officers  in  conference 
whose  concurring  views  on  any  proposed  measure  are  usually 
adopted.  Standing  Committees  on  the  several  missions  and  on 
Finance  are  appointed,  to  whom  or  to  special  committees  mat- 
ters requiring  investigation  are  referred,  and  on  whose  report 
final  action  is  taken.  Besides  these,  an  Auditing  Committee 
examines  the  monthly  accounts  of  the  Treasurer  and  another 
committee  of  business  men  not  members  of  the  Board  is  chosen 
to  examine  his  annual  report.  The  subject  of  peculiar 
perplexity  and  anxiety  is  the  appropriations  for  the  new  year. 
After  the  Secretaries  have  revised  the  estimates  received  from 
the  missions,  they  are  referred  to  the  Finance  Committee,  who 
from  their  business  outlook  may  not  be  able  to  anticipate  re- 
ceipts sufficient  to  cover  them,  and  so  the  knife  is  applied,  and 
when  final  action  is  taken  by  the  Board,  the  appropriations  are 
found  much  below  the  original  estimates,  and  then  follows  a 
correspondence  from  the  Mission  House  to  the  mission  fields 
charged  with  many  sad  disappointments. 

The  first  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Board  in  1837  was 
the  Hon.  Walter  Lowrie,  who  resigned  one  of  the  most  honored 
and  remunerative  positions  at  the  National  Capital  to  become 
the  servant  of  the  Church  in  this  office,  and  which  he  filled 
with  conspicuous  ability  and  devotion  until  the  year  before  his 
death  in  1869,  when  bodily  infirmities  compelled  his  retire- 
ment. Rev.  John  C.  Lowrie,  who  was  obliged  to  withdraw 
from  his  mission  work  in  India,  through  failure  of  health  was 
chosen  Assistant  Secretary  in  1838,  holding  also  after  1845  ^ 
pastoral  charge  until  1850,  when  he  became  a  full  co-ordinate 
Secretary  with  his  father.  This  office-he  held  until  1891,  when 
on  his  resignation  he  became  Secretary  emeritus.  In  1853, 
Dr.  John  Leighton  Wilson,  then  a  member  of  the  Synod  of 
South  Carolina,  and  a  returned  missionary  from  Africa,  was 
chosen  third  Secretary,  continuing  until  1861,  when  he  resigned 
and  became  the  first  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  Board  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  Southern 
States.     This  vacancy  was  filled  in  1865  by  Dr.   David  Irving 


8  HISTORICAL    SUMMARY. 

until  his  death  in  1885.  Dr.  Irving  had  been  a  missionary  in 
India,  and  at  the  time  of  his  appointment  was  Pastor  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Morristown,  N.  J.  In  1871  Dr. 
Frank  F.  Ellinwood,  who  had  just  closed  his  successful  work 
as  Secretary  of  the  Re-union  Memorial  Fund,  was  chosen  as 
associate  of  Drs.  Lowrie  and  Irving.  In  1883  Dr.  Arthur 
Mitchell  was  called  from  the  Pastorate  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church,  of  Cleveland  Ohio,  to  become  the  fourth  Secretary, 
and  in  1885  the  vacancy  caused  by  the  death  of  Dr.  Irving  was 
filled  by  Dr.  John  Gillespie,  Pastor  of  Westminster  Church, 
Elizabeth,  N.  J.  The  present  corresponding  secretaries  are 
in  the  order  of  their  appointment,  Drs.  Ellinwood,  Mitchell 
and  Gillespie,  with  whom  was  associated,  in  1891,  Mr.  Robert 
E,  Speer,  Assistant  Secretary.  By  arrangement  among  them- 
selves each  secretary  has  his  own  allotted  mission  fields  for 
correspondence,  though  all  letters  relating  to  general  affairs  are 
open  to  all  the  executive  officers.  The  same  arrangement  is 
also  had  among  the  secretaries  in  their  editorial  work. 

The  first  Treasurer  of  the  Board  on  its  removal  to  New  York 
was  Mr.  James  Paton,  a  prominent  merchant  of  this  city,  who 
served  without  salary  for  three  years.  Then  it  was  decided 
unwise  to  have  mission  funds  involved  in  the  uncertainties  of 
mercantile  business  ;  moreover,  much  inconvenience  was  found 
in  having  this  office  distant  from  that  of  the  Board,  and  in 
1 84 1  Rev.  Daniel  Wells,  who  had  been  rendering  assistance  in 
that  department  became  the  responsible  treasurer.  His  health 
failing  in  1848,  Charles  D.  Drake,  Esq.,  afterwards  United 
States  Senator,  and  Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Claims  in 
Washington,  was  elected  his  successor.  After  two  years  ser- 
vice Mr.  Drake  resigned,  and  William  Rankin,  Esq.,  then  of 
Cincinnati,  where  he  had  practiced  Law  about  thirteen  years, 
was  invited  to  this  office  and  entered  upon  its  duties  Novem- 
ber ist,  1850,  and  was  succeeded  in  June  1888,  by  Mr.  Gilbert 
Harroun,  who  resigned  the  following  year,  when  the  present 
incumbent,  William  Dulles,  Jr.,  Esq.,  was  chosen  as  his  suc- 
cessor. 

The  multiform  duties  of  the  Treasury  Department  may  be 


HISTORICAL    SUMMARY.  9 

inferred  from  the  Statistical  Tables  of  the  Annual  Reports.  It 
is  the  financial  agency  of  the  Board — the  balance-wheel  of  its 
extended  movements.  There  can  be  no  empty  Treasury  with- 
out a  general  collapse  '  and  bankruptcy.  When  the  needed 
supply  from  its  legitimate  source  fails,  extraneous  aid  is 
invoked.  The  Treasury  becomes  a  borrower  and  a  cloud  of 
debt  hangs  over  it.  Then  the  inquiry  is  often  made,  "  Why  is 
not  the  work  of  Foreign  Missions  conducted  on  true  business 
principles,  so  that  expenses  shall  be  controlled  by  the  actual 
beneficence  of  the  Church  with  the  other  miscellaneous  re- 
ceipts ?  "  "  Why  may  not  the  General  Assembly  wisely  impose 
the  rule  to  distribute  only  what  is  received  ? "  It  is  always 
assumed  that  the  Board  is  the  steward  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly, and  responsible  for  the  proper  distribution  of  funds 
entrusted  to  its  care,  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
credit  of  the  Board  must  be  upheld  in  any  and  every  contin- 
gency— that  appropriations  are  of  necessity  made,  except  in 
special  emergencies,  at  the  beginning  and  not  during  the 
progress  or  at  the  close  of  each  year,  that  remittances  are 
forwarded  monthly  or  bi-monthly  in  equal  proportions,  not 
measured  by  receipts  from  the  churches,  but  by  obligations 
assumed  to  the  men  in  the  field  which  can  neither,  be  scaled 
nor  suspended.  It  should  be  considered  also  that  these 
expenses  always  fall  within  the  recommendation  of  the  General 
Assembly,  and  are  based  on  the  receipts  of  the  preceding 
year.  It  is  hardly  possible  for  persons  unfamiliar  with  the  de- 
tails of  the  work  to  appreciate  the  money  pressure  under  which 
at  times  officers  and  missionaries  labor.  The  members  of  the 
Board,  recognizing  their  two-fold  relation  to  the  Church  and 
the  commercial  world — in  view  of  the  shortcomings  of  the 
former — are  pressing  upon  the  brakes  when  they  would  more 
gladly  direct  the  course  of  the  engine.  The  correspondence 
of  secretaries  is  hampered  and  unsatisfactory,  especially  to 
waiting  candidates,  because  of  the  financial  uncertainties, 
and  the  men  and  women  in  the  front  with  many  opportunities 
for  successful  advance  are  withheld  from  the  attempt  by  the 
reported  ebbing  tide  of  the  exchequer, 


lO  HISTORICAL    SUMMARY. 

During  the  first  five  years  of  the  Board's  sojourn  in  New 
York  it  had  no  abiding  place,  but  was  shifted  from  office  to 
office  at  great  inconvenience  to  all  concerned.  In  1839  an 
appeal  was  made  for  a  portion  of  the  thank-offering  that  was 
raised  on  the  occasion  of  the  semi-centennial  of  the  General 
Assembly,  the  result  being  a  special  fund  then,  and  subsequently 
given,  of  $23,000,  the  cost  of  the  ground  and  building  of  the 
Mission  House.  23  Centre  street,  which  was  first  occupied  in 
184.'.  Though  plain  in  structure,  yet  for  convenience  in  loca- 
tion and  office  arrangement,  it  was  all  that  was  needed  by  its 
early  occupants.  But  it  was  deemed  advisable  that  all  the 
Boards  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  located  in  New  York 
should  be  under  one  roof,  and  in  January  1888,  the  Home  and 
Foreign  and  Church  Erection  Boards  removed  to  the  premises 
formerly  the  residence  of  Mr.  James  Lenox,  on  Fifth  avenue 
and  Twelfth  street.  This  property  was  purchased  by  the  two 
Mission  Boards  jointly  for  $250,000,  of  which  $50,000  was  con- 
tributed by  the  late  Robert  Lenox  Kennedy,  who  also,  with  his 
sister,  added  $10,000  for  necessary  alterations.  Of  the  $100,- 
000  paid  by  the  Foreign  Board  $70,000  were  the  proceeds  of 
the  sale  of  the  Mission  House  on  Centre  street.  The  two 
Woman's  Boards  of  Home  and  Foreign  Missions  are  accom- 
modated in  the  same  building.  An  adjoining  house  now 
under  rent  was  included  in  the  purchase  and  can  be  used 
hereafter  if  needed.  The  property  has  a  market  value  far  be- 
yond its  cost.  With  the  ownership  of  the  Mission  House  on 
Centre  street  came  the  nucleus  of  a  Library,  increased  now  to 
over  6,000  volumes,  one  of  the  best  for  reference  on  mission 
subjects  in  this  country.  Also  a  Museum  of  Curios,  illustra- 
tive of  the  customs  of  Heathen  nations,  especially  their  idol 
worship. 

In  the  early  history  of  this  Board  much  time  and  thought 
were  given  to  the  selection  and  appointment  of  salaried  agents 
in  the  several  sections  of  the  Church.  These  were  supposed 
to  make  Foreign  Missions  a  specialty,  and  as  experts  to  present 
with  unusual  power  and  success  the  cause  before  the  people. 
It  was  a  costly  machinery,  whose   power  with  the  increasing 


HISTORICAL    SUMMARY.  II 

interest  of  pastors  in  missions  gradually  declined,  and  for 
thirty-five  years  has  not  been  used.  There  is,  however,  no  lack 
of  interest  in  the  personal  reports  from  the  field  by  mission- 
aries at  home  on  furlough,  or  in  the  appeals  of  the  Secretaries. 
for  whose  attendance  upon  conventions  and  ecclesiastical 
bodies  and  for  pulpit  supply,  there  is  an  unceasing  demand. 

IVomans  Work  for  Missions  has  always  had  its  place  in  the 
Church  of  Christ.  But  in  1870  it  assumed  an  organized  form, 
and  tendered  its  aid  as  an  auxiliary  to  this  Board.  A  power- 
ful and  beneficent  agency  it  has  become,  pouring  its  multiply- 
ing and  collected  rills  in  a  swelling  tide  of  blessings  upon  all 
our  mission  fields.  A  tabulated  statement  of  the  growing 
receipts  from  these  auxiliaries  is  given  in  this  Manual,  amount- 
ing from  1870  to  1892  to  $3,912,400. 

The  results  accomplished  during  the  sixty  years  since  the 
Synod  of  Pittsburgh  engrafted  Foreign  Missions  into  church 
work  have  not  been  written,  nor  can  they  be.  Seventeen 
hundred  men  and  women  constitute  the  honored  roll  of  mis- 
sionaries sent  by  the  Synod  and  this  Board  to  the  Foreign 
fields,  including  thirty-six  transferred  from  the  American 
Board  at  the  Re-union.  The  work  thus  undertaken  and  car- 
ried forward  is  pre-eminently  a  work  of  faith,  and  has  met 
with  the  rewards  of  faith.  The  golden  threads  of  the  precious 
promise,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,"  are  interwoven  with  it,  and 
full  results  are  beyond  the  sphere  of  human  record.  But  so  far 
as  the  work  of  the  Board  forms  part  of  the  history  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  it  is  embodied  mainly  in  its  periodicals  and  an- 
nual reports.  First  in  the  Foreign  Missionary  Chronicle,  begun 
in  Pittsburgh  in  1832,  then  in  the  Home  and  Foreign  Record  and 
the  Foreign  Missionary,  both  begun  in  1850,  and  by  action  of 
the  General  Assembly  merged  in  December  1886,  in  The 
Church  at  Home  and  Abroad.  To  these  also  should  be  added 
the  Foreign  Missionary  for  Young  People,  begun  in  1842  and 
ended  in  1855,  ^^^  the  more  recent  and  popular  monthlies  of 
our  Woman's  Boards,  viz  :  Woman's  Work  for  Woman  and 
Children  s  Work  for  Children.  A  summary  volume  of  the 
earlier  publications,  enibracing  an  historical  narrative  written 


12  HISTORICAL    SUMMARY. 

by  Secretary  Dr.  John  C.  Lowrie,  with  brief  memoirs  of  de- 
ceased missionaries  down  to  1868,  was  published  that  year  by 
the  Treasurer  under  the  title,  ''The  Foreign  Missions  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church." 

This  more  than  half  century's  experience  brings  into  promi- 
nence three  principles  of  future  success. 

ist.  Funds  must  be  raised  not  by  outside  pressure,  but 
by  the  spontaneous  action  of  church  courts,  ministers  and 
people. 

2d.  The  income  of  the  Board  must  be  steady,  so  as  to  be 
safely  anticipated  in  making  the  annual  appropriations  for  its 
widening  fields. 

3d.  The  income  should  increase  from  year  to  year,  by  a 
percentage  of  which  there  can  be  an  approximate  estimate,  so 
as  to  keep  pace  with  the  natural  progress  of  the  work  abroad, 
and  of  the  church  in  its  growth  and  material  prosperity  at 
home. 

Unless  these  principles  are  recognized  and  upheld,  there 
will  be  debt  and  discouragement,  and  the  inscription,  "  Go 
Forward  "  upon  the  banner  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  an  in- 
appropriate emblem. 

The  tables  on  the  pages  following  have  been  collated  by  my 
esteemed  friend,  and  for  twenty  years  efficient  assistant  in  the 
treasury  department,  Mr.  George  S.  Garrison,  who  will  receive 
the  thanks  of  all  who  consult  them  for  furnishing  in  this  com- 
pact form,  information  often  called  for  at  the  Mission  House. 
It  will  be  seen  from  these  tables  that  the  cash  receipts  into  the 
Foreign  Mission  treasurv  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  during 
the  last  sixty  years  is  about  eighteen  and  a  quarter  million 
dollars,  and  that  the  required  annual  outlay  for  the  Board's 
work  is  now  over  one  million. 

It  is  in  place  here  also  to  express  my  high  appreciation  of  an- 
other assistant,  Mr.  Campyon  Cutter,  who  for  thirty-one  years 
in  the  purchasing  and  packing  and  shipping  department,  has 
ever  been  faithful  in  meeting  the  wishes  and  seeking  the  com- 
fort of  the  missionaries,  either  in  their  going  out  or  on  their 
return,  or  in  attention  to  orders  from  the  field. 


STATISTICS  OF  SIXTY  YEARS. 


Ministers. 


10 
10 
10 
9 
14 
15 
15 
17 
17 
19 
19 
21 
21 
21 
21 
22 
22 
22 
23 
21 
21 
21 
22 
22 
22 
19 
20 
2-^ 
82 
26 
28 
23 
23 
28 
28 
26 
25 
25 
25 
25 
28 
29 
30 
33 
33 
33 
31 
31 
26 
27 
27 


13 
16 
20 
23. 

26 
28, 


Native 


Lat  Mission- 
aries. 


American. 


Female . 


3 
4 

4 
10 
11 

17 

19 

20 

26 

28 

28 

29 

31 

28 

37 

38 

39 

43 

45 

51 

48 

5' 

60 

65 

69 

60 

69 

81 

81 

54 

5' 

54 

58 

59 

58 

62 

65 

69 

91 

103 

113 

98 

101 

98 

105 

102 

103 

111 

117 

125 

138 

149 

150 

162 

160 

162 

176 

196 

201 

207 


4 
6 

9 
4 

12 

11 

14 

19 

21 

20 

26 

25 

30 

31 

43 

48 

63 

44 

51 

73 

75 

80 

94 

118 

141 

145 

174 

1 

193 
199 
378 
357 
387 
440 
396 
458 
457 
484 
519 
516 
516 
607 
580 
746 
813 
731 
756 
804 
863 
943 
1055 
1108 


44 

51 

41 

50 

87 

131 

185 

189 

330 

389 

437 

492 

512 

672 

813 

908 

933 

1,162 

2,779 

2,857 

681 

665 

961 

1,012 

1,193 

1,490 

1,616 

1,836 

2,047 

3,512 

4,202 

4,476 

6,272 

6,901 

8,. 577 

9,632 

10.391 

11,366 

12,607 

14,.588 

16,484 

18,656 

19,897 

21,051 

20.294 

21.420 

23,740 

25,346 

26.794 

28,494 

30.479 


50 
194 

519 

679 

482 

678 

734 

513 

993 

1,102 

1.165 

1,322 

1,6.32 

1,755 

2.291 

2,657 

3.046 

3.836 

4,824 

4,469 

4,595 

1,.545 

2,340 

4,524 

4,644 

4.792 

5,010 

4.910 

5,817 

6,865 

7.182 

6,851 

7,422 

7,465 

10,059 

10,681 

10,961 

12,592 

12,509 

13,501 

14,614 

16,039 

17,104 

17,791 

18.260 

20,064 

21.223 

25,914 

25,269 

24.144 

23,329 

23,770 

27,394 

26.348 

27,813 

29,011 


Receipts. 


M  n 


$5,331  90 

12,673  04 

15,072  78 

16.801  74 

33.560  26 

44,468  62 

52,2,38  68 

52,325  79 

63,834  39 

53,614  10 

5.3,682  25 

75,938  01 

69,800  05 

67,416  43 

79,4.30  82 

82,745  75 

93,009  01 

98,916  59 

94.631  82 

103,158  53 

104,548  36 

123,193  03 

110,706  48 

118,864  37 

120,919  71 

150.951  45 

134.274  28 

1.55,346  24 

152,074  97 

135,446  82 

137,750  61 

155,488  84 

200,521  27 

151,881  85 

194,152  18 

241,766  63 

212,121  14 

217,6.37  51 

293,099  06 

377,497  00 

380,040  06 

527,537  09 

396,662  74 

468,691  80 

434,460  52 

428,768  49 

385.127  13 

445,071  31 

468.899  74 

463,645  79 

521,369  60 

574,845  12 

581,067  93 

633,975  02 

680,887  75 

738.456  27 

707,233  90 

681.188  76 

853.501  27 

798,242  54 


$100  00 


337  28 
50  00 
1,034  88 
80  00 
115  00 
1,764  25 
977  75 
5,310  22 
1,077  70 
1,813  56 
2,317  28 
8,978  10 
3,308  52 
6,419  31 
3,285  39 
5,586  81 
7,315  81 
10,162  20 
11,190  76 
8,298  60 
11,615  82 
17,340  10 
14,671  57 
13,677  52 

19.354  82 
23,821  58 
13,249  24 

7,637  11 
10,158  86 
22.181  31 
34,648  58 
17,927  15 
14,957  98 
15,219  79 
88.308  64 
23.251  47 
17,249  08 
72,579  35 
64  875  82 
88,373  89 
52,405  27 
38,636  89 
37,511  26 
32,915  81 

40.355  31 
120.104  51 
111.3.56  57 
113,152  59 
126,933  59 
112,551  58 
112.189  77 
111,189  44 
103  269  84 
162,724  53 
145,581  95 
112,877  68 

89,189  37 
133,049  93 


[FOR  NOTES  SEE  PAGE  FOLLOWING.] 


14  HISTORICAL    SUMMARY. 

NOTES. 

a  Missionaries  and  scholars  in  India  reduced  by  the  Sepoy  revolt. 

b  Most  of  the  southern  Presbyterian  churches  withdrew  from  the  Board 
owing  to  the  civil  war. 

c  Mission?  in  the  Indian  Territory  broken  up  by  the  war.  Some  of  them  re- 
sumed. iS'iS  and  1881. 

d  The  Seneca,  Lake  Superior,  Chipp»wa,  Dakota.  Syria.  Gaboon  and  Persia 
missions,  and  a  number  of  missionaries  received  from  the  American  Board. 

e  Including  S138.503,  special  for  debt. 

/  Including  $51,474,  special  for  debt. 

g  Number  of  missions  and  communicants  reduced  by  transfer  of  Chippewa, 
Omaha,  Wiunebago,  Sa.x  and  Fox  Indian  mis-sions  to  Hom*^  Board. 

h  Including  3,5:5  boardmg  scholars,  1,749  boys,  1,826  girls  in  1891-2. 


The  above  notes  explain  the  abrupt  changes  in  some  of  the  col- 
umns on  the  preceding  page.  The  most  important  break  was  in 
1861-2,  when  the  civil  war  caused  the  severance  of  one-third  of  our 
churches  from  the  support  of  the  Board,  and  the  disbandmeut  of 
boarding  schools  in  the  Indian  Territory,  with  their  more  than  400 
youth  and  children,  and  the  return  to  their  Northern  homes  of  twen- 
ty-three Missionary  teachers. 

One  of  our  Secretaries  of  Southern  birth  then  felt  constrained  to 
resign  his  connection  with  the  Board  and  return  to  his  native  State. 
Dr.  J.  Leighton  Wilson  was  a  man  of  high  character  and  zealous  in 
the  cause  which  had  engaged  his  earh-  manhood  in  Africa,  wise  and 
efficient  as  an  executive  officer,  and  beloved  by  his  brethren  in  New 
York,  especially  by  his  associates  at  the  Mission  House.  He  was  at 
once  chosen  Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Board  in  the  Southern  Church, 
which  he  organized,  and  for  nearly  thirty  years  administered 
with  distinguished  ability.  His  memoirs  are  now  being  written  by 
Rev.  H.  C.  Du  Bose,  D.D.,  of  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Mission  at 
Soochow,  China. 


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t6  historical  summary. 

Statement  of  Mission  and  Home  Expenditures 

For  the  Year  Ending  April  30,  1892. 
By  Wm.  Dulles,  Jr.,  Treasurer. 

Expenditures  for 
Missions.  1891-92.  Total. 

Africa. 

Gaboon  and  Corisco $22,786  92 

Liberia 5,877  50                  $28,664  42 

China. 

Cnnton 48,988  11 

Peking 13,801  68 

Shanghai 56,978  74 

Shantung 53,308  96                  173,077  49 

Chinese  and  Japanese  in  U.  S 27,247  10 

Guatemala 9,732  35 

India. 

Lodiana 90.857  22 

Farrukhabad 49,869  73 

Kolhapur 22,126  37  162,853  32 

Japan. 

East 46.743  42 

West 56,697  61  103.44103 

Korea 24,295  61 

Mexico 86,156  69 

Persia. 

East 32,138  69 

West 57,567  30  89,705  99 

SiAM  and  Laos. 

Siam 27,177  76 

Laos 28,324  14  55,50190 

South  America. 

Brazil 56,714  90 

Chili 28,880  00 

Colombia 13,114  25  98,709  15 

Syria 68,252  05 

U.  S.  Indians. 

Dakotas 9,860  00 

Nez  Perces 5,606  25 

Senecas.... 2,750  00  18,216  25 

Sundry  Special  Appropriations 3.191  66 

Total  for  Mission  Fields  . .  $949,045  01 

Home  Department 51,286  12 

"  Church  at  Home  and  Abroad '" 2,352  52 

Total  of  Expenditures $1,002,683  65 


CONSTITUTION  AND  CHARTER 

OF    THE 

Bonnl  of  Foreip  Wllssions  of  tlie  Presbyterian  G|irch. 


"  The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
of  the  United  States  of  America,"  was  constituted  in  1837  by 
a  Committee  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  consisted  of  120 
members,  one-fourth  of  this  number  to  be  elected  each  year 
thereafter  by  the  Assembly,  and  was  located  in  the  city  of 
New  York.  The  change  of  location  from  Pittsburg,  where  it 
originated  as  a  Synodical  Society,  was  one  of  the  conditions  of 
acceptance  of  the  Hon.  Walter  Lowrie  as  its  first  Corre- 
sponding Secretary.  The  Board  met  yearly,  and  elected  an 
Executive  Committee  of  nine  members,  with  Secretaries  and 
Treasurer.  Up  to  1852  it  was  simply  a  benevolent  association, 
acting  under  the  power  conferred  by  the  General  Assembly, 
but  without  any  corporate  rights  and  privileges.  An  impor- 
tant legacy  had  been  contested  in  the  New  York  courts,  and 
lost  to  the  Board  from  want  of  capacity  to  take  ;  although  the 
Treasurer,  Charles  D.  Drake,  Esq.,  in  an  able  argument,  con- 
tended that  inasmuch  as  the  Trustees  of  our  General  Assembly 
were  incorporated,  and  the  Board  was  but  an  agency  of  the 
Assembly,  the  legacy  referred  to  was  virtually  to  a  corporation, 
and  therefore  good  in  law.  But  this  view  was  not  sustained 
by  the  Court,  and  so  a  large  sum  of  money  intended  by  the 
testator  for  mission  purposes,  reverted  to  his  estate. 

Before  this  case  arose,  or  pending  its  litigation,  the  Board 
had  applied  to  the  Legislature  of  New  York  on  two  different 
years  for  a  special  charter,  but  failed,  the  second  time  by  one 


l8  CONSTITUTION  AND    CHARTER. 

vote  only,  which  could  have  been  secured  if  Mr.  Lowrie,  who 
had  the  matter  in  charge,  would  change  the  name  of  the 
Board  by  adding  the  two  letters  O.  S.  (old  school),  to  the 
closing  word  "America,"  which  he  would  not  consent  to  do. 

After  these  repeated  failures,  the  Board  was  glad  to  avail  it- 
self of  the  provisions  of  the  General  Law  of  the  State  of  1848, 
respecting  charitable  and  missionary  societies,  and  became 
incorporated  under  it  by  filing  a  certificate  in  the  proper  offi- 
ces, signed  and  acknowledged  by  members  of  the  Executive 
Committee. 

In  1862  another  serious  loss  of  $10,000  occurred  under  the 
will  of  Samuel  Cochran,  by  reason  of  one  of  the  sections  of 
that  law  which  did  not  affect  other  legatees  being  foreign  cor- 
porations, and  again  an  application  was  made  for  a  special 
charter,  which  was  carried  through  the  Legislature  by  a  mem- 
ber who  volunteered  to  take  it  in  charge,  the  Hon.  Chauncey 
M.  Depew.  This  is  the  charter  which  now  gives  the  Board  its 
legal  existence,  and  is  printed  in  all  the  annual  reports.  A 
majority  of  those  who  had  signed  the  certificate  of  1852,  being 
still  members  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Board  with 
its  President  and  Secretaries,  and  "  such  others  as  they  may 
associate  with  themselves,"  are  constituted  "a  body  corporate 
and  politic  for  ever."  This  new  charter,  with  the  name  un- 
changed, was  accepted  by  the  Board  at  its  annual  meeting  in 
May,  1862,  and  was  subsequently  interpreted  by  the  Supreme 
Court  in  a  litigated  legacy  case  (Wm.  Bostwick's  Execs.),  as  a 
merger  of  the  powers  originally  acquired  in  1852.  It  reads 
as  follows  : 

AN  ACT  to  incorporate  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  : 

Passed  April  12,  1862.— Chapter  187. 

The  People  of  the   State    of    New    York,  represented  in 
Senate  and  Assembly,  do  enact  as  follows  : 

Section  i. — Walter  Lowrie,  Gardiner  Spring,  William  W. 
Phillips,  George  Potts,  William  Bannard,  John  D.  Wells, 
Nathan  L.  Rice,  Robert  L.  Stuart,  Lebbeus  B.  Ward,  Robert 


CONSTITUTION  AND    CHARTER.  19 

Carter,  John  C.  Lowrie,  citizens  of  the  State  of  New  York 
and  such  others  as  they  may  associate  with  themselves,  are 
hereby  constituted  a  body  corporate  and  politic  forever,  by  the 
name  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  and  conducting  Christian  Missions  among  the  un- 
evangelized  or  Pagan  nations,  and  the  general  diffusion  of 
Christianity  ;  and  by  that  name  they  and  their  successors  and 
associates  shall  be  capable  of  taking  by  purchase,  grant,  devise 
or  otherwise,  holding,  conveying,  or  otherwise  disposing  of  any 
real  or  personal  estate  for  the  purposes  of  the  said  corporation, 
but  which  estate  within  this  State  shall  not  at  any  time  exceed 
the  annual  income  of  twenty  thousand  dollars.* 

Section  2. — The  said  corporation  shall  possess  the  general 
powers,  rights,  and  privileges,  and  be  subject  to  liabilities  and 
provisions  contained  in  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  the  first  part 
of  the  Revised  Statutes,  so  far  as  the  same  is  applicable,  and 
also  subject  to  the  provisions  of  chapter  three  hundred  and 
sixty  of  the  laws  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty. 

Section  3. — This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

In  1870  the  reunited  General  Assembly  reorganized  the 
Board  and  reduced  its  members  from  120  to  15,  with  the  Sec- 
retaries and  Treasurer  as  members  ex-officio.  Its  modified 
Constitution  as  found  on  page  46  of  General  Assembly 
Minutes  for  that  year,  is  as  follows  : 

The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  shall  hereafter  consist  of  fif- 
teen members,  besides  the  Corresponding  Secretaries  and  the 
Treasurer,  who  shall  be  members  ex-officio. 

The  term  of  service  of  the  present  members  of  the  Board, 
the  Executive  Committee,  and  the  Permanent  Committee, 
shall  end  with  the  first  meeting  of  the  Executive  Committee 
after  the  dissolution  of  the  General  Assembly,  when  a  new 
Board  shall  be  constituted. 

The  General  Assembly  shall  select  fifteen  members  of  the 
Board  in  three  classes  of  five  each.  The  first  shall  serve 
three  years,  the  second  class  two  years,  and  the  third  class  one 
year. 

Each  subsequent  General  Assembly  shall  elect  five  members 
of  the  Board  to  hold  office  for  three  years,  and  shall  fill  any 

*  Restricted  income  enlarged  by  Chapter  553  of  Laws  of  1890.    See  page  22. 


20  CONSTITUTION  AND    CHARTER. 

vacancies  in  either  of  the  other  classes  for  the  unexpired  term 
of  service. 

Any  five  members  of  the  Board  shall  form  a  quorum. 

One  of  the  ex-officio  members  to  be  designated  by  the  Board 
shall  be  entitled  to  a  seat  in  the  General  Assembly  as  a  cor- 
responding member  on  all  subjects  relating  to  Foreign 
Missions. 

Besides  the  duties  already  committed  to  their  charge,  the 
Board  shall  perform  the  duties  heretofore  assigned  to  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Board,  and  to  the  Permanent 
Committee  on  Foreign  Missions,  in  so  far  as  these  have  not 
been  superseded  or  modified  by  this  minute. 

The  "  Permanent  Committee  "  above  referred  to  had  here- 
tofore been  acting  in  connection  with  the  American  Board  and 
was  at  once  dissolved.  After  the  adoption  of  the  foregoing 
changes,  the  General  Assembly  elected  fifteen  persons  to  serve 
as  members  of  the  Board  for  the  ensuing  year,  eight  or  a 
majority  of  whom  were  members  of  the  Executive  Committee. 

At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Executive  Committee  after  the 
dissolution  of  the  General  Assembly,  the  members  present,  as 
authorized  by  the  Act  of  Incorporation,  and  as  instructed  by 
the  General  Assembly,  associated  with  themselves  the  other 
seven  members  chosen  by  that  body,  and  they  were  thus  to- 
gether constituted  under  the  charter  the  reorganized  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The  Board 
then  re-elected  the  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  their  yearly  term 
of  office  having  expired.  The  General  Assembly  of  1890  au- 
thorized the  enlargement  of  the  members  to  twenty-one,  mak- 
ing seven  of  each  class. 

In  1872  the  Legislature  of  New  York  enacted  a  law  relating 
to  ''Trustees  and  Directors  of  Charitable  or  Benevolent  Insti- 
tutions," prohibiting  such  officers  from  receiving  any  salary  as 
such.  In  consequence  of  this  law,  the  General  Assembly  the 
same  year  so  modified  the  constitution  of  the  Board,  so  as  to 
take  from  the  Secretaries  and  Treasurer  the  right  to  vote  on 
any  measure  coming  before  it,  and  reduced  the  quorum  to  four 
members  present  at  a  meeting.  The  Assembly  thus  interpreted 
the  terms  "directors  and  trustees  "  as  the  equivalent  of  "cor- 


CONSTITUTION  AND    CHARTER.  H 

porators  and  their  associates,"  and  held  this  corporation  sub- 
ject to  the  prohibition  of  the  statute.  Since  1862  the  Board 
has  been  repeatedly  involved  in  litigation  with  executors  and 
heirs-at-law,  but  has  never  been  defeated  from  want  of  capacity 
to  take  under  its  charter,  nor  has  the  integrity  of  the  charter 
been  questioned  by  opposing  counsel.  Every  year  since  cor- 
porate rights  were  secured  as  vacancies  have  occurred  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  have  been  elected  by  the  General  Assem- 
bly, who  thus  become  as  an  essential  law  of  its  being  "succes- 
sors and  associates  of  the  body  corporate  and  politic  forever." 

In  1885  the  Legislature  of  New  York  passed  a  law  imposing 
a  collateral  inheritance  tax  of  five  per  cent,  on  legacies  to  cer- 
tain classes  of  corporations,  and  the  question  has  been  raised 
which  perplexed  some  executors,  whether  it  applied  to  benevo- 
lent institutions.  Surrogate  Rollins,  of  New  York,  in  a  case 
before  him,  decided  that  the  Boards  of  Foreign  and  Home 
Missions  were  exempt  from  its  provisions,  and  so  have  the 
Surrogates  of  some  other  of  the  counties  of  the  State. 

An  opinion  by  ex-Judge  Hooper  C.  Van  Vorst  was  obtained, 
which  so  clearly  sets  forth  the  reason  for  exemption,  that  I 
quote  it  in  full : 

"The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
is  a  domestic  corporation.  It  has  no  capital  and  no  stocks, 
its  purposes  are  wholly  religious,  being  the  establishment  of 
Christian  missions  and  the  propagation  and  diffusion  of  Chris- 
tianity among  pagan  nations.  It  was  chartered  by  the  Legisla- 
ture of  this  State  by  an. act  passed  April  12,  1862,  chap.  187. 
It  is  not  liable  to  taxation  upon  its  personal  property.  Moneyed 
corporations  deriving  income  or  profits  from  capital  or  other- 
wise are  liable  to  taxation,  i  R.  S.,  page  404,  sec.  11.  The 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  being  exempt  from  taxation  upon 
its  personal  property,  a  legacy  to  it  is  not  subject  to  be  re- 
duced by  the  collateral  inheritance  tax  imposed  by  the  law  of 
1885,  chap.  483,  as  amended  by  chap.  763,  Laws  of  1887.  The 
wording  of  the  Statute  expressly  excepts  from  its  provisions 
societies,  corporations,  and  institutions  now  exempted  by  law 
from  taxation." 

The  opinion  of  this  eminent  counsellor  and  of  the  Surrogate 
was  overruled  by  the  Court  of  Appeals,  and  such  legacies  were 


CONSTITUTION  AND    CHARTER. 


held  subject  to  the  collateral  inheritance  tax.  The  decision 
gave  occasion  to  the  enactment  by  the  Legislature  of  the  fol- 
lowing : 

Chapter  55J  of  the  Laws  of  i8go. 

"AN  ACT  to  amend  chapter  one  hundred  and  ninety-one  of  the 
laws  of  ei^^hteen  hundred  and  eighty-?une,  entitled  ''An  act  to 
litnit  the  amount  of  property  to  be  held  by  corporations  or- 
ganized for  other  than  business  purposes,'  and  relating  to 
such  corporations. 

"  The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in 
Senate  and  Assembly,  do  enact  as  follows : 

"Section  i.  Chapter  one  hundred  and  ninety-one  of  the 
laws  of  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-nine,  entitled  'An  act  to 
limit  the  amount  of  property  to  be  held  by  corporations  or- 
ganized for  other  than  business  purposes,'  is  hereby  amended 
so  as  to  read  as  follows  : 

"Section  i.  Any  religious,  educational,  Bible,  missionary, 
tract,  literary,  scientific,  benevolent  or  charitable  corporation, 
or  corporation  organized /Icr  the  enforcetnent  of  laws  relating 
to  children  or  animals,  or  for  hospital,  infirmary,  or  other  than 
business  purposes,  may  take  and  hold,  in  its  own  right  or  in 
trust  for  any  purpose  comprised  in  the  objects  of  its  incorporation, 
property  not  exceeding  in  value  two  million  dollars,  or  the 
yearly  income  derived  from  which  shall  not  exceed  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  notwithstanding  the  provisions  of  any 
special  or  general  act  heretofore  passed  or  certificate  of  incor- 
poration affecting  such  corporations.  In  computing  the  value 
of  such  property,  no  increase  in  value  arising  otherwise  than 
from  improvements  made  thereon  shall  be  taken  into  account. 
The  personal  estate  of  such  corporations  shall  be  exempt  from 
taxation,  and  the  provisions  of  chapter  four  hundred  and  eighty- 
three  of  the  laws  of  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-five,  entitled 
'^  an  act  to  tax  gifts,  legacies  and  collateral  inheritafices  in  cer- 
tain cases,"  and  the  acts  amendato7'y  thereof,  shall  not  apply 
thereto,  nor  to  any  gifts  to  any  such  corporation  by  grant,  bequest 
or  othenejise  ;  provided,  however,  that  this  provision  shall  not 
apply  to  any  moneyed  or  stock  corporation,  deriving  an  income  or 
profit  from  the  capital  or  otherwise,  or  to  any  corporation  which 
has  the  right  to  make  dividends  or  to  distribute  profits  or  assets 
among  its  members. 

"Section  2.  This  act  shall  not  affect  the  right  of  any  such 
corporation  to  take  and  hold  property  exceeding  in  value  the 


CONSTITUTION  AND   CHARTER.  23 

amount  specified  in  section  one  of  this  act,  provided  such  right 
is  conferred  upon  such  corporation  by  special  statute  ;  nor  af- 
fect any  statute  by  which  its  real  estate  is  exempt  from  taxation. 

"  Section  3.  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately." 

A  recent  decision  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  limits  the  ex- 
emption from  the  collateral  inheritance  tax  to  religious  corpor- 
ations created  by  the  State  of  New  York. 


Reunioii  jlddress  Before  the  Synod  of  few  Jeiseij. 


October  1870. 


The  work  of  Foreign  Missions  in  the  American  Churches 
originated  in  the  inspiration  and  agency  of  Samuel  John 
Mills.  In  1810  the  American  Board  was  organized  in  answer 
to  a  memorial  signed  by  him  and  three  associates.  In  May 
1 81 6,  Mills  writes  to  his  father,  from  Dr.  Griffin's  study  in 
Newark  :  "  The  Presbyterian  Church,  as  is  well  known,  have 
heretofore  as  a  church  made  no  exertions  to  send  the  Gospel 
out  of  the  limits  of  the  States.  I  have  for  a  long  time  thought 
it  desirable  that  their  attention  should  be  directed  to  the  sub- 
ject of  Foreign  Missions,  not  only  with  the  view  of  sending  the 
Gospel  to  the  destitute  abroad,  but  in  the  hope  that  exertion 
of  this  kind  might  excite  more  zeal  for  the  diffusion  of  religious 
knowledge  in  our  own  country.  I  conceive  the  object  is 
secured."  "  Mills  went  from  my  house,"  says  Dr.  Griffin, 
"  to  lay  the  project  of  a  Missionary  Society  before  the  General 
Assembly,  at  the  time  the  United  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
was  formed." 

This  society,  a  Union  of  the  Associate  and  Dutch  Reformed 
Church  with  our  own  in  this  work,  had  an  existence  of  nine 
years — being  in  1826  merged  in  the  American  Board.  Nine 
Missions,  embracing  sixty  male  and  female  Missionaries  were 
thus  transferred  from  the  control  of  the  highest  judicatories 
of  these  Presbyterian  bodies  to  the  management  of  the  non- 
denominational  Board  at  Boston. 

In  183 1  there  sprung  from  the  bosom  of  the  Synod  of  Pitts- 
burgh, The  Western  Foreign  Missionary  Society.  The  reason 
for  this  new  Church  organization  is  well  expressed   in   its  first 


REUNION    ADDRESS.  25 

circular  addressed  to  the  churches  early  in  1833.  "  In  refer- 
ence to  the  American  Board  we  hope  to  cherish  no  selfish 
principle,  and  we  shall  appeal  to  no  sectarian  feeling.  We  do 
contemplate  its  past  achievements  and  its  present  prosperity 
with  unmingled  pleasure.  Our  only  strife  will  be  to  copy  its 
every  good  example  and  try  not  to  be  outdone  by  it  in  kind 
affection  and  Christian  magnanimity.  We  hope  to  be  able  as 
a  Presbyterian  Board  to  increase  the  amount  of  Missionary 
feeling  and  effort  in  our  church,  but  certainly  on  such  princi- 
ples of  mutual  harmony  and  brotherly  co-operation  as  every 
sincere  disciple  of  Christ  will  desire  to  witness." 

We  accept  then  the  testimony  of  the  noble  founders  of  this 
Presbyterian  Board,  that  it  was  formed  in  brotherly  co-opera- 
tion with  kindred  societies  to  increase  the  amount  of  Missionary 
feeling  and  effort  in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  It  recognized 
the  great  principle  that  the  Church  is  "  designed,  adapted  and 
bound  as  God's  agent,  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature." 
This  Synodical  Society  attracted  the  sympathy  and  support  of 
churches  outside  its  bounds  in  different  sections  of  the  Presby- 
terian body,  so  that  in  1835  its  friends  had  a  controlling  vote 
in  the  General  Assembly.  It  was  there  proposed  to  bring  this 
organization  under  the  supervision  of  the  Assembly,  and  a 
Committee  was  appomted  to  confer  with  the  Pittsburgh  Synod 
and  arrange  the  terms  of  such  transfer.  The  terms  were 
agreed  upon  and  preliminary  measures  adopted  by  the  respect- 
ive Committees,  which  the  Assembly  of  1836  was  expected  to 
ratify  and  thus  re-engraft  the  Foreign  Missionary  work  upon 
our  highest  judicatory  as  one  of  its  benevolent  agencies.  That 
Assembly,  however,  refused  its  sanction  to  the  arrangement  of 
its  Committee,  or  to  any  other  plan  looking  to  the  withdrawal 
of  our  churches  from  their  support  of  the  American  Board. 

The  Assembly  of  1837  became  divided  into  two  bands,  and 
by  virtue  of  tllb  authority  of  one  of  them,  the  Western  Foreign 
Missionary  Society,  was  reorganized  in  the  City  of  Baltimore, 
Oct.  31,  1837,  as  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
in  the  U.  S.  A.     New  York  was  then  selected  as  the  seat  of  its 


26  REUNION    ADDRESS. 

operations,  and  Walter  Lowrie  appointed  Corresponding 
Secretary. 

This  Board  of  the  Assembly  entered  upon  its  work  under 
favorable  auspices,  for  the  roots  of  its  present  vigorous  growth 
were  already  planted. 

There  were  Missionaries  among  the  Indian  Tribes — Mission- 
aries in  Africa  and  in  India,  and  Missionaries  ready  to  embark 
for  China,  and  within  a  month  of  their  departure,  while  as  yet 
that  empire  had  every  gate  barred  and  sealed  against  their 
entrance. 

In  looking  back  upon  the  history  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
during  these  early  years,  we  may  sincerely  regret  the  action  of 
1826,  which  removed  the  responsibility  of  the  Foreign  Mission- 
ary work  from  our  Church  Courts.  We  cannot  certainly  say 
how  different  that  history  would  have  been  had  the  Assembly 
all  along  been,  herself,  a  great  Missionary  Society  for  spread- 
ing the  Gospel  over  the  earth,  but  we  are  impressed  with  the 
significance  of  the  words  of  Dr.  Swift,  the  venerable  Secretary 
of  the  Pittsburg  Society,  in  his  Annual  report  of  1836.  "Had 
the  commotions  which  now  agitate  the  Church  found  its  min- 
istry and  its  churches  bound  together  by  the  hallowed  ties  of 
one  harmonious  and  life-inspiring  effort  to  evangelize  the 
world,  those  waves  whose  rockings  now  threaten  her  destruc- 
tion  would   scarcely   have   left   the   trace  of  their  existence. 

.  .  .  The  days  of  division  and  inaction  cannot  last  for- 
ever. The  Spirit  of  God  will  return  in  glory  and  in  power 
to  the  churches,  and  the  Spirit  of  love  and  concord  to  the 
Saints." 

Brethren,  have  we  not  reached  that  predicted  era  ? 

The  United  Assembly  of  1870  has  again  re-organized  the 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  We  have  entered  upon  the  work 
of  Mills  and  Griffin,  and  Green,  of  1816  ;  of  Swift  and  Elliott 
of  1 83 1,  of  the  Fathers  assembled  in  Baltimore  in  1837.  We 
start  upon  this  new  career  with  twelve  Presbyteries  organized 
on  heathen  soil,  most  of  them  having  been  represented  by  dele- 
gates in  our  late  Assembly,  and  all  of  them  the  fruits  of  the 


REUNION    ADDRESS.  2^ 

inspiration    and    plans    of   those   who   engrafted  the   Foreign 
Missionary  work  upon  our  ecclesiastical  body. 

We  start,  too,  with  a  suddenness  of  development  and  respon- 
sibility heretofore  unknown  in  our  history.  All  our  Missions 
have  thus  far  been  planted  and  nurtured  and  brought  to  their 
present  advanced  condition  by  a  gradual  process.  We  have 
grown  with  the  growth  of  the  Missionary  spirit  in  our  Church 
and  in  our  Seminaries.  We  have  sent  out  faithful  men  and 
women  in  regions  unoccupied  by  other  societies,  and  through 
their  labors,  and  the  blessing  of  God  upon  them,  the  work  as 
presented  in  our  last  Annual  Report  has  been  accomplished. 

But  now  we  are  invited  to  enter  upon  the  labors  of  others. 
By  the  transfer  of  some  of  the  Missions  of  the  American 
Board  we  have  cast  upon  us  greatly  increased  responsibilities. 
Happily,  with  these  new  burdens  comes  the  united  co-opera- 
tion of  the  whole  Presbyterian  Church.  As  one  body  we  throw 
our  strength  into  this  work.  The  days  of  division  and  inaction 
pass  away  together,  and  we  wait  for  the  Spirit  of  God  to  return 
in  glory  and  in  power  to  the  churches. 

There  can  be  no  standing  aloof  from  this  work.  No  ques- 
tionings whether  contributions  shall  go  in  this  direction  or 
that.  The  example  of  over  twenty  Presbyterian  Corporate 
members  of  the  American  Board  in  withdrawing  from  that 
body,  that  they  may  throw  the  full  weight  of  their  influence 
into  their  own  Church  organization  is  an  indication  of  the  pur- 
pose of  the  great  mass  of  all  who  have  heretofore  co-operated 
with  them.  Individual  Christians  from  personal  relationships 
and  long  cherished  sympathies  will  not  altogether  desert  their 
old  friends,  but  Pastors  and  Sessions,  and  the  people  generally, 
will  hold  up  the  Presbyterian  Board  as  one  of  the  desired 
fruits  of  our  blessed  reunion 

And  now,  having  reviewed  the  past  and  taken  our  stand  on 
this  raised  platform,  let  us  look  briefly  at  the  work  before  us. 
And  first,  as  to  the  working  machinery.  This  is  simply  our 
Church  Courts  in  action.  The  only  departure  from  the  well- 
tried  policy  of  "dispensing  with  agents"  was  in  the  recent 
appointment  of  a  minister  of  our  Church,  who  has  long  acted 


28  REUNION    ADDRESS. 

as  District  Secretary  for  our  Sister  Board,  in  a  region  largely 
covered  with  Presbyterian  churches  not  heretofore  co-opera- 
ting with  us.  This  brother,  however,  decided  to  remain  in  his 
present  relation,  and  when  the  conclusion  he  had  reached  was 
reported  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  Board,  every  member 
seemed  satisfied  with  the  result.  The  new  Board  then  will 
not  change  the  old  policy,  a  policy  which  contrasts  most  favor- 
ably with  the  "agency  system"  practiced  in  our  earlier  history. 
The  Presbyterian  Church  as  an  organized  community  includes 
all  the  inherent  power  and  agency  necessary  for  carrying  on 
the  missionary  work.  That  power  needs,  however,  a  fuller  de- 
velopment. We  should  consider  this  cause  and  plan  for  it  in 
our  Presbyteries.  We  should  discuss  it  in  our  Synods.  We 
should  plead  for  a  larger  portion  of  the  sessions  of  the  General 
Assembly  for  the  consideration  of  this,  its  great  work.  We 
should  hold  our  church  sessions  responsible  for  regular  collec- 
tions for  Foreign  Missions.  We  should  remind  pastors  that 
it  is  one  of  their  duties  to  their  people,  to  teach  them  what 
Christ  taught  his  disciples,  to  "go  into  all  the  world  and  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature."  And,  oh!  what  a  soul-inspiring 
theme  is  this.  "  I  could  not  comfort  my  pious  people,"  says 
the  great  and  good  Andrew  Fuller,  "however  and  whatever  I 
preached  to  them,  until  they  began  to  care  for  the  souls  of  the 
perishing  heathen." 

Let  this  cause  rest  then  upon  the  regular  ministrations  of 
our  pastors,  and  let  them  study  and  present  it  as  they  study 
and  present  the  great  doctrines  of  the  cross. 

I  admit  that  this  machinery,  so  simple  and  inexpensive,  has 
not  brought  us  all  the  money  that  was  needed.  For  the  last 
four  years  the  expenses  of  the  Board  have  outrun  its  receipts, 
and  but  for  remarkable  providences  the  cause  would  have 
been  so  crippled  as  to  make  necessary  a  retrograde  movement. 
Three  years  ago  last  May  our  debt  was  $35,000.  A  suggestion 
was  made  in  the  General  Assembly,  that  the  children  of  the 
Church  pay  it,  and  within  six  months  they  poured  in  their 
special  contributions,  exceeding  in  the  aggregate  the  sum  re- 
quired.    A  year  ago,  within  a  week  of  closing  the   annual  ac- 


REUNION    ADDRESS.  29 

counts,  we  were  in  debt  $70,000.  Before  the  week  closed 
$67,000  were  laid  upon  the  Treasurer's  table  in  settlement  of 
a  single  legacy.  On  the  first  of  last  May  there  was  a  debt  of 
$44,000.  More  than  three-fourths  of  that  debt  has  been  can- 
celled by  a  few  individuals.  But  we  must  not  rely  upon 
remarkable  interpositions,  or  the  double  gifts  of  a  dozen  men 
to  float  our  Missionary  ship.  The  sources  of  supply  must  be 
the  regular  outflowing  of  our  churches,  and  for  this  there  is  in 
every  pastor's  hand  the  divinely  appointed  producing  rod. 
The  working  power  of  our  scriptural  machinery  is  capable  of 
indefinite  expansion  as  every  fair  trial  of  it  demonstrates.  Be- 
sides pastoral  instruction  there  must  be  organizations  such  as 
will  reach  the  individual,  man,  woman,  and  child  ;  there  must 
be  Sunday  School  societies  and  zenana  bands,  or  kindred  as- 
sociations to  aid  the  noble  women  of  our  Board  who  are  labor- 
ing in  all  its  fields  to  shed  light  upon  the  darkened  mind  of 
their  heathen  sisters. 

We  entered  upon  this  first  year  of  our  re-organized  Board 
with  greater  incentives  to  action,  and  weightier  responsibilities 
than  in  all  our  past  experience.  We  have  outrun  the  American 
Board  in  the  number  of  new  Missionaries.  Since  the  meeting 
of  the  General  Assembly  we  have  sent  them  to  Brazil,  to 
China,  to  the  Chinese  in  California,  to  the  Indian  Tribes,  to 
the  recently  adopted  Kolapoor  station  in  India,  and  to  the  old 
stations  of  the  Board  on  and  beyond  the  Ganges. 

There  is  now  a  steamer  on  the  ocean  having  thirteen  Mis- 
sionaries of  our  Board — men  and  women — most  of  them  going 
to  meet  their  first  experience  in  missionary  life. 

Since  the  first  of  May  your  Treasurer  has  had  to  meet  the 
traveling  expenses  of  twenty-two  outgoing  Missionaries,  and 
during  these  months  the  receipts  of  the  Board,  from  its  regular 
sources,  have  been  less  than  for  the  same  months  in  several 
years — less  by  forty  per  cent,  than  last  year.  Is  this  great  de- 
ficiency the  fruits  of  our  munificent  offering  to  the  Lord  for 
the  reunion  ?  Was  it  ever  known  in  Israel  that  God  accepted 
thank-offerings  while  the  tithes  for  the  support  of  the  priest- 
hood and  the  regular  services  of  the  sanctuary  were  omitted  ? 


30  REUNION    ADDRESS. 

Let  the  great  principles  of  justice  and  judgment  lay  at  the 
foundation  of  our  benevolence  and  then  our  prayers  and  our 
offerings  will  come  up  as  a  sweet  memorial  before  the  Throne. 

Since  the  first  of  September  we  have  also  assumed  all  the 
expenses  of  the  Syria  and  the  Gaboon  Missions  and  of  some 
among  the  Indian  Tribes  lately  under  the  American  Board. 
We  expect,  moreover,  to  include  the  mission  to  the  Nestorians. 
Thus  we  offset  the  withdrawal  of  churches  formerly  contribu- 
ting to  the  American  Board  by  assuming  a  reasonable  share  of 
the  expense  which  it  has  heretofore  borne. 

The  work  is  upon  us,  and  the  future,  with  its  hopes  and 
uncertainties,  before  us.  It  is  pre-eminently  a  work  of  Faith. 
Walter  Lowrie  used  often  to  write  to  discouraged  teachers  of 
Indian  children  and  desponding  Missionaries  abroad — "  The 
blessed  Saviour  cares  far  more  for  those  poor  children  and 
those  degraded  heathens  than  we  do."  And  so  we  work  on  in 
faith,  knowing  that  the  heart  of  Jesus  is  in  full  sympathy  with 
those  who  work  for  him. 

The  God  who  has  led  us  these  nearly  forty  years,  and 
brought  us  through  many  parting  seas  asweneared  their  brink 
— the  God  who  has  sent  into  the  fields  of  the  old  Board,  and 
who  are  still  spared  in  their  work,  over  ninety  ordained  and 
medical  missionaries,  with  wives  and  sisters  as  co-laborers,  and 
added  native  preachers  and  helpers,  and  all  the  appliances  of 
schools  and  zenana  openings,  and  press  and  colportage — the 
God  who  has  baptized  every  mission  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
never  in  greater  measure  than  now — the  God  who  has  just 
interposed  by  his  signal  Providence  to  rescue  a  promising 
mission  from  threatened  destruction  in  removing  by  death 
the  persecuting  king  of  the  Laos — the  God  who  has 
reunited  these  churches,  which  once  split  upon  this  rock 
of  Foreign  Missions,  and  as  the  fruits  of  this  his  signal  good- 
ness, has  cast  upon  us  increased  cares  and  responsibilities, 
adding  to  our  force  in  the  Foreign  field  missionaries  hardly 
yet  counted,  and  expenses  not  yet  estimated — He  will  still  take 
care  of  His  own  work  and  make  this  once  rock  of  offence  a 


REUNION    ADDRESS.  3 1 

corner-stone  of  a  more  glorious  temple  than  the  Presbyterian 
Church  has  ever  yet  reared  to  His  praise  and  His  glory. 

The  late  meeting  of  the  American  Board  was  perhaps  the 
most  memorable  of  all  that  preceded  it.  Two  marked  events 
gave  it  peculiar  interest,  not  only  to  the  listening  audience  that 
filled  the  Academy  of  Music  in  Brooklyn,  but  to  the  entire 
Church  of  Christ. 

One  of  them  was  the  voluntary  withdrawal  from  co-opera- 
tion in  that  cherished  institution  of  so  many  of  the  official 
ministers,  and  laymen  in  the  Presbyterian  connection. 

The  other  was  the  winding-up  and  graduation  of  the  mission 
to  the  Sandwich  Islands.  A  nation  had  been  christianized 
through  the  labors  of  men  in  its  service  during  a  period  of  fifty 
years. 

In  the  history  of  our  own  Board  there  is  no  such  remarkable 
record  as  that.  We  have,  however,  the  closing  up  of  one  mis- 
sion— a  little  one — begun  and  ended  by  a  single  man,  and  his 
valedictory  to  our  Board  is  my  valedictory  to  this  audience. 

Chippewa  Mission,  Michigan, 

August  29,   1870. 

Dear  Brethren — You  are  mostly  strangers  to  me  person- 
ally. The  thirty-two  years  that  have  passed  since .  I  became 
connected  with  the  Board  as  a  missionary  to  the  Indians  have 
borne  to  the  grave  and  their  reward  the  beloved  Secretary 
Walter  Lowrie  and  nearly  every  one  of  the  officers  with  whom 
I  had  any  acquaintance.  There  has  been  a  change  here  also. 
When  I  came  to  this  wilderness  and  to  these  bands  of  ignorant, 
and  by  many  esteemed,  savage  men  I  was  alone — the  first 
white  man  that  took  up  residence  here.  Now  I  am  a  band 
numbering  ten,  and  in  this  fact  may  be  found  one,  and  perhaps 
the  greatest  reason  for  my  now  asking  release  from  connection 
with  the  Board  that  has  sustained  this  mission.     .     .     . 

I  will  briefly  state  some  facts  that  show  the  work  of  the 
Board  among  these  ignorant  and  degraded  people  has  not  been 
without  many  good  fruits.  Instead  of  heathen  bands,  ignor- 
ant, indolent,  intemperate,  clothed  with  a  filthy  blanket,  and 
living  in  smoky  wigwams,  we  now  see  civilized  families  in 
comfortable  houses,  with  farms  and  teams,  industrious  and  ex- 
ercising all  the  rights  and  duties  of  citizens — reading  the  Tes- 
tament,  family   prayer,    social   meetings   for   prayer,    regular 


32  REUNION    ADDRESS. 

attendance  on  the  House  of  God,  and  many  giving  pleasing 
evidence  of  heart  piety.  During  these  years  there  were 
gathered  into  the  church  here  some  one  hundred  and  thirty,  of 
whom  twenty-five  have  passed  into  the  eternal  world,  and  we 
hope  to  join  the  song  of  the  redeemed.  .  .  .  Many  chil- 
dren have  been  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  triune  God  whom 
we  hope  may  yet  be  gathered  into  the  fold.  May  the  Lord 
direct  you  and  us  is  the  prayer  of  your  missionary. 

P.  Dougherty. 

I  have  referred  to  the  success  that  has  attended  one  of  our 
Indian  missions,  for  the  reason  that  the  General  Government 
has  recently  invited  this  with  kindred  Boards  to  co-operate  in 
its  present  policy  for  civilizing  the  tribes  in  the  new  Territories. 
Never  before  were  such  facilities  offered  the  Church  to  pro- 
mote the  good  of  these  heathen  neighbors  as  at  the  present 
time. 


Incidents  in  Nortl  Indin  jVlissions. 


In  the  early  Spring  of  1833,  when  Samuel  Irenaeus  Prime,  a 
member  of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  was  lying  sick  in 
his  room  and  as  it  was  feared  nigh  unto  death,  he  was  aroused 
one  day  by  a  shout  near  the  entrance  of  the  hall  below,  and  on 
inquiring  its  meaning  was  answered  ^*  Lowrie  is  off  for  India.'' 
The  sick  man  arose  from  his  bed,  moved  to  the  window  over- 
looking the  crowd  of  students  and  joined  his  feeble  voice  to 
theirs.  From  that  hour  he  began  to  gather  strength  and  soon 
was  able  to  accompany  his  parents,  who  had  been  summoned 
to  his  bedside,  to  the  parental  home.  The  departing  student 
who  created  this  interest  had  left  Allegheny  under  appointment 
as  a  missionary  of  the  Western  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  and 
had  come  to  Princeton,  attracted  by  the  fame  of  its  professors, 
to  round  out  his  seminary  course  and,  if  possible,  enlist  others 
in  the  cause  which  he  had  espoused. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  of  1882,  after  an 
address  by  Secretary  Lowrie  of  the  Foreign  Board,  in  which 
he  referred  to  his  fifty  years'  service  in  the  cause.  Dr.  Irenseus 
Prime,  thus  reminded  of  their  early  association  in  Princeton, 
offered  the  following  resolution,  which  was  unanimously 
adopted  : 

"The  General  Assembly  recognizes  with  gratitude  the  good- 
ness of  God  in  continuing  the  life  and  usefulness  of  its  vener- 
able senior  Secretary  for  Foreign  Missions,  the  Rev.  John  C. 
Lowrie,  D.  D.,  until  he  has  completed  fifty  years  of  faithful 
and  continuous  labor  in  this  blessed  service  ;  the  Assembly 
thanks  the  Secretary  for  his  fidelity,  hopes  that  he  may  live  to 
see  the  annual  income  of  the  Board  one  million  of  dollars,  and 
prays  that  after  this  life  he  may  enjoy  an  everlasting  crown  of 
righteousness  in  the  kingdom  of  glory." 


34  NORTH    INDIA    MISSIONS. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  eighty  first  birthday  of  the  subject 
of  the  foregoing  resolution,  which  occurred  during  the  last  mis- 
sion year  (i8S8),  the  Board  reproduced  and  incorporated  it  in 
their  minutes,  with  added  words  of  appreciation  of  the  seven 
years'  service  since  rendered  by  their  venerable  and  beloved 
Secretary. 

On  the  30th  May,  1833,  four  persons  sailed  from  New  Cas- 
tle, Delaware,  as  pioneer  missionaries  of  the  American  Presby- 
terian Church  to  the  Eastern  world.  They  arrived  in  Calcutta 
in  October,  where  one  of  their  number  died  and  soon  after  two 
others  re-embarked  for  home,  only  one  reaching  it,  while  the 
other,  for  whose  failing  health  they  had  left,  was  buried  in  the 
sea. 

The  survivor  of  this  little  band,  in  pursuance  of  the  commis- 
sion with  which  he  was  charged,  after  months  of  necessary 
delay  in  Calcutta,  proceeded  on  his  way  to  plant  the  Gospel 
among  the  hardy  independent  tribes  of  the  northwest  provinces 
where  as  yet  no  missionary  of  any  society  had  gone.  The 
journey  by  boat  of  this  solitary  stranger,  with  the  sad 
memories  of  the  recent  past,  presents  a  picture  of 
Christian  heroism  and  perseverence  rarely  excelled.  The 
perils  by  the  way  during  two  and  a  half  months  of  continuous 
voyaging  are  epitomized  in  his  published  journal.  After  en- 
countering a  storm  in  which  the  tender  conveying  part  of  his 
effects  was  lost,  he  writes:  "  Every  year  many  boats  are  lost, 
I  have  heard  of  two  since  I  left,  and  have  several  times  seen 
that  it  was  almost  the  direct  power  of  an  Almighty  hand  that 
saved  mine  from  the  same  fate  when  rapid  currents,  contrary 
winds,  miserably  managed  sails  and  inefficient  boatmen  seemed 
almost  to  make  certain  such  a  result." 

At  Cawnpore,  Mr.  Lowrie  left  the  river  for  a  land  journey 
of  over  four  hundred  miles  in  a  palankeen,  when  he  reached 
the  northern  boundary  of  British  protection,  and  on  the  5  th  of 
November,  1834,  founded  the  Lodiana  Mission.  He  would 
have  proceeded  farther  north  into  the  Punjab,  but  what  he 
learned  then  was  confirmed  by  a  visit  later  to  Runjet  Sieng, 
the  ruler  of  the  land,  that  the  way  was  not  yet  open  for  the  en- 


NORTH    INDIA    MISSIONS.  35 

trance  of  the  Gospel  among  his  people.  By  and  by  this 
noted  chieftain  was  brought  to  his  funeral  pyre,  and  with  his 
dead  body  were  burned  eleven  living  females.  His  successors 
provoked  wars  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  power,  and  with  their 
overthrow  British  rule  was  extended  over  the  Sikh  tribes,  and 
with  it  the  suppression  of  the  suttee  ;  and  in  1850  the  central 
station  of  the  Lodiana  Mission  was  Lahore,  the  capital  of  the 
Punjab. 

The  day  before  Mr.  Lowrie  alighted  from  his  palankeen  at 
Lodiana  two  ordained  ministers  and  their  wives  sailed  from  Bos- 
ton to  join  him,  one  of  them,  the  late  Dr.  John  Newton,  the 
historian  of  the  mission  at  its  jubilee  celebration  in  1884,  then 
in  active  service,  with  children  and  grandchildren  his  regularly- 
commissioned  co-laborers  in  this  field.  Accompanying  this 
first  reinforcement  was  a  young  lady  who  at  Calcutta  yielded 
to  social  attractions  for  another  sphere  of  usefulness,  whose 
example  has  not  been  without  imitators  since,  to  the  disap- 
pointment of  those  in  whose  service  they  originally  embarked. 

The  second  reinforcement,  consisting  of  four  ministers  and 
their  wives,  of  whom  the  venerable  Dr.  Jamieson,  now  of  Schuy- 
ler Presbytery,  is  the  sole  survivor,  sailed  from  New  Castle  on 
the  i6th  November,  1835,  one  year  from  the  founding  of  the 
mission,  and  arrived  in  Calcutta  in  time  to  receive  advice  and 
direction  from  Mr.  Lowrie,  who  was  there  waiting  for  a  passage 
home,  his  health  not  permitting  a  longer  stay  in  the  country. 
The  voyage  of  this  company  up  the  Ganges  was  attended  with 
the  loss  of  a  mission  library  and  press,  and  resulted  in  the  per- 
manent occupancy  of  Allahabad  as  a  new  mission  centre. 

Two  years  later,  in  October,  1837,  the  third  reinforcement 
of  four  ministers  and  their  wives  sailed  from  New  Castle,  who, 
after  a  voyage  of  nearly  six  months,  landed  in  Calcutta,  and 
three  weeks  thereafter  (April  27,  1838),  Mrs.  AnnaM.  Morrison, 
from  Bloomfield,  New  Jersey,  passed  in  triumph  to  her  reward, 
and  her  remains,  at  her  own  request,  were  laid  by  the  side  of 
Mrs.  Louisa  Lowrie,  of  the  pioneer  band. 

One  year  later,  in  1838,  the  fourth  reinforcement  of  three 
ministers  and  their  wives  left  our  shores,  and  on  their  arrival 


36  NORTH    INDIA    MISSIONS. 

out  both  Allahabad  and  Futteghur  were  occupied,  which  at  a 
later  date  became  central  stations  of  the  Furrukhabad  Mis- 
sion, 

In  1870,  on  application  of  Rev.  R.  G.  Wilder,  who  was  conduct- 
ing an  independent  mission  at  Kolapur,  and  of  the  friends  who 
supported  it,  the  same  was  adopted  and  has  since  been  sus- 
tained by  the  Presbyterian  Board. 

Historical  sketches  of  these  three  missions — the  Lodiana, 
the  Furrukhabad  and  the  Kolapur — were  prepared  for  the 
jubilee  celebration  of  the  first  named  in  November  1884,  and 
are  published  in  a  volume  of  marked  interest  to  those  who 
seek  for  details  of  the  work  of  the  American  Presbyterian 
Church  in  India.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  sum- 
marize the  work  therein  sketched.  Nearly  two  generations 
have  passed  since  it  was  begun.  Yearly  reinforcements  have 
gone  forth  from  our  seminaries  and  churches,  and  scores  of  our 
sainted  ones  have  found  their  graves  in  that  foreign  soil.  The 
names  of  the  earlier  laborers  are  perpetuated,  more  than  is  the 
case  with  any  other  of  our  missions,  in  their  children,  who  are 
treading  in  the  same  field  the  steps  of  their  parents. 

The  success  of  this  self-denying  work  cannot  be  judged  by 
the  numerical  roll  of  baptized  converts.  Of  these  over  one 
thousand  are  embraced  in  the  five  Presbyteries  of  the  Synod 
of  India,  and  there  are  the  uncounted  ones  who  are  enrolled  in 
the  church  of  the  first-born  in  heaven.  Of  the  twenty-one  or- 
dained native  pastors,  a  representative  was  with  us  in  1S87, 
Rev.  R.  C.  Chattergee,  a  Brahmin  of  the  Brahmins,  who  ap- 
peared before  the  General  Assembly  and  some  of  our  Synods 
and  churches,  whose  noble  bearing,  elegant  scholarship  and 
zeal  for  Christian  work  received  the  just  appreciation  of  all 
who  were  favored  with  hearing  his  addresses,  or  meeting  him 
and  his  accomplished  wife  in  the  social  circle. 

In  regard  to  comparative  results,  one  well  qualified  to  judge, 
Dr.  John  Murdock,  author  of  "  Indian  Missionary  Manual," 
gives  this  testimony :  "After  having  made  the  circuit  of  the 
India  Missions  from  the  Punjab  to  Cape  Comerin  about  twenty 
limes,  I  venture  to  say  that  the  American  Presbyterian  Mission 


NORTH    INDIA    MISSIONS.  37 

has  as  much  if  not  more  to  show  than  any  other  mission  in  In- 
dia under  the  same  circumstances  :  i.  Perhaps  no  mission  in 
north  India  has  done  more  in  the  way  of  direct  preaching  to 
the  heathen.  2.  Superior  schools  have  been  maintained  in  the 
principal  cities,  and  there  has  been  greater  care  to  preserve 
the  evangelistic  character  than,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  is  sometimes 
shown  in  British  mission  schools.  3.  By  means  of  the  press 
the  American  Presbyterian  Missions  have  done  as  much  in 
north  India  and  the  Punjab  as  all  the  other  missionaries  taken 
together  for  the  diffusion  of  Christian  truth  through  this 
agency." 

The  chief  hindrance  to  the  reception  of  the  Gospel  by  the 
multitudes  to  whom  its  claims  have  been  made  known  is  the 
dominating  power  of  caste  which  holds  its  subjects  in  social 
and  religious  bondage.  Unhappily  for  themselves,  as  well  as 
for  the  natives,  this  inhuman  system  has  been  upheld  and 
sanctioned  by  the  ruling  powers  who,  while  professing  Christ- 
ianity, have  ignored  it  as  an  agency  entrusted  to  them  for  the 
good  of  the  Indian  race.  Such  is  the  arraignment  of  Sir  Her- 
bert Edwardes,  in  his  address  at  the  Liverpool  Mission  Con- 
ference of  i860.  Not  only  does  this  charge  hold  good  in 
respect  to  state  education,  which  cultivates  the  intellect  and 
allows  the  conscience  to  lie  buried  in  heathen  superstition,  but 
also  in  respect  to  enlistments  in  the  army,  which  are  made 
subservient  to  the  demands  of  caste. 

It  was  subjection  to  this  demand  that  made  possible  the  Se- 
poy mutiny  of  1857.  The  Enfield  rifle  cartridge,  greased  with 
the  fat  of  animals  alike  unclean  to  Hindoo  and  Mohammedan,  as 
a  spark  of  fire  to  a  continuous  train  of  gunpowder,  excited  the 
simultaneous  revolt  of  100,000  armed  men.  As  Sir  Herbert, 
after  long  official  service  in  India,  testifies,  "  The  greatest  rev- 
olution, perhaps,  the  world  has  ever  seen,  the  Indian  mutiny 
of  1857,  if  anything  in  this  world  was  made  of  material  ele- 
ments, was  made  with  grease." 

In  this  awful  tragedy  our  American  missionaries  had  their 
full  share  of  suffering  and  sorrow. 

Behold  that  martyr  band  at  Futtehgurh — Freeman  and  John- 


38  NORTH    INDIA    MISSIONS. 

son  and  McMuUen  and  their  wives,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Campbell  and 
their  two  children  leaving  their  bungaloes  and  floating  on  boats 
down  the  Ganges.  They  have  written  their  last  messages  to 
dear  ones  at  home.  "What  is  to  become  of  us  and  of  the 
Lord's  work  in  this  land,"  writes  one,  "we  cannot  tell  ;  but 
God  reigns,  and  in  Him  will  we  rejoice."  And  the  tone  and 
spirit  of  this  letter  characterizes  the  correspondence  of  them 
all.  And  now  their  passage  down  the  river  is  arrested  by  the 
guns  of  the  enemy.  They  bring  their  boats  to  land,  throw 
away  their  carnal  weapons,  and  gather  in  a  praying  circle. 
Mr.  Freeman  offers  prayer,  reads  a  portion  of  Scripture,  makes 
remarks  and  then  they  sing  a  hymn.  Mr.  Campbell  follows 
with  remarks  and  prayer,  and  another  hymn  is  sung.  Then 
the  Sepoys  advance  upon  them.  They  are  tied  together  two 
and  two.  Mr.  Campbell  carries  in  his  arms  one  of  his  chil- 
dren; a  friend  among  their  English  fellow-captives  carries  the 
other.  They  are  permitted  to  lie  down  at  night,  suffering 
from  want  of  food  and  water.  In  the  morning  the  Prince  of 
Bithoor,  whose  captives  they  are,  sends  carriages  for  the  ladies, 
and  on  their  reaching  Cawnpore  all  are  mercilessly  shot  by  his 
order,  and  their  bodies  cast  into  a  well. 

Nana  Sahib — and  I  need  no  epithet  to  paint  his  character 
— that  Maharetta  name  is  a  word  of  significance  which  no 
English  can  express.  Nana  Sahib,  the  Prince  of  Bithoor,  was 
an  educated  East  India  gentleman  of  pleasing  address  and 
polished  manners,  the  true  type  of  Anglo-India  civilization. 
Army  officers  and  civilians  and  their  families  felt  honored  in 
being  invited  guests  at  his  sumptuous  entertainments.  He  was 
trained  in  the  government  institutions,  where  the  Koran  and 
Shasters  are  text-books  taught  by  professors  of  Oriental  litera- 
ture, and  from  which  the  Bible  and  Christian  instruction  are 
excluded  that  the  East  India  policy  of  neutrality  might  be 
maintained.  Behold  the  product  of  that  policy  in  Nana  Sahib, 
the  deceiver  and  betrayer  of  scores  of  England's  confiding 
sons  and  daughters,  the  murderer  of  our  beloved  missionaries, 
their  wives  and  little  ones. 

But  happily  this  anti-Christian  policy  was  modified  and  to  a 


NORTH    INDIA    MISSIONS.  39 

large  extent  overruled  by  the  evangelical  spirit  pervading  the 
government  of  the  Punjab.  In  the  glare  of  the  mutiny  Sir 
John  Lawrence  advised  the  missionaries  to  intermit  no  part  of 
their  work,  and  from  a  community  where,  as  we  have  seen^ 
"  the  American  Presbyterian  Mission  had  exerted  a  wider  in- 
fluence than  all  other  missions  combined,"  that  noble  Christian 
commander  raised  a  native  force,  which,  joined  to  his  few  Brit- 
ish troops  carried  the  breach  in  the  walls  of  Delhi  and  crushed 
the  head  of  the  mutiny.  The  following  year  the  political  power 
of  the  East  India  Company  was  merged  in  the  British  crown, 
and  a  change  of  policy  has  been  looked  for  in  harmony  with 
the  Christian  sentiments  of  the  English  people. 

But  the  supremacy  of  caste  as  a  social  and  religious  force  in 
society  will  yield  only  to  the  opposing  power  of  the  religion  of 
Christ.  On  this  subject  our  pioneer  missionary  expressed  his 
views  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  and  holds  to  them  still- 
"  No  great  number  of  Hindoos,"  he  says,  "  could  ordinarily 
be  expected  to  become  Christians  until  this  system  of  caste  is 
broken.  .  .  .  Eventually  it  will  become  a  great  means  of 
its  own  overthrow.  This  will  result  from  the  leavening  influ- 
ence of  the  Gospel  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  reaching 
each  member  of  each  subdivision  ;  but  no  one  moving  until 
all  moved,  and  then  conversions  would  be  multiplied  by  thous- 
ands and  scores  of  thousands. 

May  we  not  fondly  hope  that  these  prophetic  words  will  be 
fulfilled,  not  in  the  distant,  but  in  the  near  future,  and  then 
not  only  India  will  be  emancipated,  but  the  home  Church, 
through  whose  agency  this  great  deliverance  has  been  effected, 
will  receive  into  her  own  bosom  double  for  all  her  sacrifices. 
The  waters  from  the  sanctuary  that  shall  overflow  the  plains  of 
Hindooism  and  kindred  superstitions,  will  find  their  level  in 
lands  where  are  now  their  spring  sources  only.  They  will  be 
waters  to  swim  in. 

September,  1889. 


Eorly  Teiirs  of  ttie  Ceiitrnl  Ctiina  Missioij. 


While  looking  in  one  day  upon  the  General  Assembly  of 
1843,  then  sitting  in  Philadelphia,  a  young  physician  of  that 
city  was  tapped  on  the  shoulder  by  Walter  Lowrie,  Secretary 
of  the  Presbyterian  Foreign  Mission  Board,  who  said  he  was 
in  search  of  a  medical  missionary  for  the  north  of  China,  and 
asked  him  what  he  was  doing  and  if  he  would  go.  He  replied 
that  he  would  go,  his  parents  consenting.  This  interview  oc- 
curred a  few  months  after  the  Treaty  of  Nanking,  of  August, 
1842,  was  signed,  which  opened  five  Chinese  ports  to  foreign 
commerce,  with  the  right  of  residence  and  Christian  worship. 
Among  them  was  the  walled  city  of  Ningpo,  then  regarded  the 
most  important  of  the  northern  treaty  ports,  but  shortly  after 
outranked  by  Shanghai.  Three  ordained  missionaries  had 
been  secured  for  this  northern  field — Walter  M.  Lowrie,  who 
had  already  reached  Macao,  Augustus  W.  Loomis  and  M. 
Simpson  Culbertson,  and  now  the  want  of  a  medical  associate 
was  supplied  in  the  appointment  of  D.  Bethune  McCartee,  M. 
D.  He  was  personally  well  known  to  the  executive  officers 
of  the  Board,  His  father  was  pastor  of  the  old  Canal  Street 
Presbyterian  Church  in  New  York,  where  the  son  was  reli- 
giously trained,  and  where  on  a  week-day  afternoon  Elder 
William  Steel  drilled  the  boys  from  four  years  old  and  upward 
in  the  Shorter  Catechism.  At  the  end  of  this  interview  with 
the  Secretary,  young  McCartee,  then  in  his  twenty-fourth  year, 
was  preparing  a  medical  work  for  a  publisher,  and  was  a  part- 
ner in  practice  with  a  physician  in  whose  office  Andrew  P. 
Happer,  the  distinguished  veteran  missionary  of  Canton,  re- 
cently retired,  was  then  a  student.  Being  released  from  these 
engagements,  and  receiving  the  paternal  sanction  and  blessing. 


CENTRAL    CHINA    MISSION.  4I 

he  sailed  for  China,  October  6,  1843,  in  the  ship  Huntress, 
owned  by  Talbot  Olyphant  and  Company,  of  missionary  mem- 
ory. He  had  as  fellow-passengers  for  Macao,  Mr.  Richard 
Cole,  a  printer  sent  by  the  Board,  with  its  press  and  accompani- 
ments, and  Mrs.  Cole,  all  of  whom  received  from  the  ship- 
owners free  passage.  After  a  voyage  of  four  and  one-half 
months,  he  arrived  in  Hong  Kong  in  the  latter  part  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1844,  where  he  was  detained  until  the  12th  of  June, 
waiting  for  a  passage  north.  During  this  detention  he  occa- 
sionally visited  his  future  associate,  Walter  M.  Lowrie,  at 
Macao,  who,  while  acquiring  the  Chinese  written  language,  was 
assisting  Mr.  Cole  with  the  press,  adding  his  scholarship  to  the 
practical  skill  of  the  printer  in  arranging  for  use  the  newly 
invented  metallic  type,  which  press  was  soon  after  removed  to 
Ningpo,  and  in  i860  to  Shanghai,  where  it  now  is. 

Dr.  Wells  Williams  was  also  at  Macao,  and  in  close  fellow- 
ship with  Mr.  Lowrie.  These  visits  were  attended  with  no 
little  danger.  Twice  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  robbers.  The 
first  time,  being  alone,  he  was  garrotted  and  pinioned.  On  the 
other  occasion  he  was  in  company  with  Williams  and  Lowrie, 
when  he  was  knocked  senseless  with  a  stone,  and  Lowrie  was 
severely  cut  and  bruised  about  the  head,  and  all  were  over- 
powered and  robbed.  No  report  of  these  mishaps  was  sent 
home,  lest  it  should  cause  anxiety  to  friends. 

Sailing  from  Hong  Kong,  Dr.  McCartee  had  a  favorable 
passage  to  Chusan,  an  island  near  the  mouth  of  the  Ningpo 
River,  then  held  by  British  forces  as  a  guarantee  for  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  stipulations  of  the  Nangking  Treaty.  An  officer 
kindly  aided  him  in  chartering  a  Chinese  junk  to  convey  him 
to  the  mainland,  and  up  the  river  twelve  miles  to  the  city  of 
Ningpo.  Not  knowing  how  long  the  voyage  would  be,  and  be- 
ing unable  to  ask,  he  "  turned  in  "  and  went  to  sleep  (when 
within  half  an  hour  of  his  destination),  and  awoke  only  when 
the  Chinese  Custom  House  officer  came  on  board  the  next 
morning  to  examine  the  cargo  of  the  junk. 

His  arrival  was  on  the  21st  of  June,  1844,  the  date  of  the 
founding  of  the  Ningpo  Mission,  the  first  Presbyterian  mission 


42  CENTRAL    CHINA    MISSION. 

in  Central  or  Northern  China.  Of  the  four  pioneers  assigned 
to  this  field,  the  last  appointed  was  the  first  on  the 
ground.  On  the  north  bank  of  the  river,  opposite  the  city,  in  a 
rice  field,  a  British  consul  and  clerks,  and  a  British  merchant 
and  his  clerk,  were  living.  The  consul  entertained  with  hospi- 
tality the  young  missionary,  and  assisted  him  in  renting  a  small, 
one-story  house  near  the  consulate.  The  place  proving  very 
sickly  from  the  heat,  malaria,  and  bad  drinking  water,  the  doc- 
tor retreated  to  Chusan  as  a  health  station,  where  he  remained 
three  months,  opening  for  the  natives  a  dispensary,  and  acquir- 
ing their  colloquial  language,  which  is  the  same  as  that  at 
Ningpo.  The  reading  of  a  portion  of  a  Chinese  tract  by  his 
heathen  teacher  was  the  only  means  he  could  use  for  their 
spiritual  good.  Here  at  this  British  camp  he  enjoyed  the 
Christian  society  of  some  Irish  officers  and  European  artillery 
men.  To  the  same  island  had  also  come  Miss  Mary  Ann  Ald- 
ersey,  an  English  lady  of  moderate  wealth,  who  had  been 
conducting  an  independent  mission  school  in  Java,  and  had  re- 
moved to  China  for  the  same  purpose,  bringing  with  her  two 
baptized  native  girls  of  the  island,  and  also  an  adopted  child, 
who  became  on  profession  of  her  faith  one  of  the  early 
members  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Ningpo,  and  is  now  the 
widow  of  the  late  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Russel,  of  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society. 

During  his  stay  at  Tinghai,  the  chief  city  of  Chusan,  Dr. 
McCartee  was  joined  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  R.  Q.  Way,  of  his  own 
Board,  who  had  been  assgined  to  Siam,  but  on  learning  at  Singa- 
pore of  the  temporary  suspension  of  that  mission,  had  proceeded 
north  to  join  the  brethren  in  China.  They  brought  with  them 
from  Singapore  a  servant.  Hung  Apoo,  a  native  of  the  Canton 
Province,  who  was  taught  by  Mrs.  Way  to  read  the  English 
Bible  without  learning  the  alphabet.  He  became  converted, 
not  a  servant  only,  but  a  brother  beloved,  and  before  a  church 
was  organized  was  baptized  in  Ningpo  by  Mr.  Way,  after  an 
examination  in  the  presence  of  Dr.  McCartee  and  Miss  Alder- 
sey.  T\\\s  first  Christian  convert  in  the  north  of  China  is  still 
living  in  his  native  province,  holding  fast  his  profession,  and, 


CENTRAL   CHINA    MISSION.  43 

like  Abraham,  he  has  commanded  his  children  and  his  house- 
hold after  him  to  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord. 

During  the  Summer,  Miss  Aldersey  moved  to  Ningpo,  where 
she  spent  thirteen  years  of  her  consecrated  life  in  conducting  a 
boarding  school  for  girls,  which,  on  her  leaving  China,  in  1857, 
was,  at  her  request,  merged  in  the  mission  school  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Board.  The  other  missionaries  on  the  island  left  it  in 
the  Autumn,  and  for  a  short  time  lived  together  in  Dr.  McCar- 
tee's  hired  house  on  the  north  bank  of  the  river,  until  Mr.  Way 
found  a  more  suitable  home  for  his  family  within  the  city.  His 
colleague,  also,  near  the  close  of  the  year  secured  apartments 
for  himself,  and  a  hospital  in  a  Tavist  Temple  or  Monastery, 
within  the  city  walls. 

On  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Lowrie  in  April,  1845,  he  engaged 
rooms  in  the  same  building,  and  the  two  brethren  were  together 
until  near  the  close  of  the  following  year,  when  the  latter  opened 
a  chapel  and  lived  in  a  small  house  in  another  part  of  the  city. 
In  referring  to  this  joint  occupancy  nearly  forty  years  afterwards, 
Dr.  McCartee  says  that  he  **  never  hears  or  calls  to  mind  Dr. 
Watts'  hymn,  '  Lord,  in  the  morning  thou  shalt  hear  my  voice 
ascending  high,'  without  the  Tavist  Temple  and  Lowrie's  clear 
and  pleasant  notes  coming  back  to  his  memory,  as  though  it 
were  but  yesterday."  A  residence  in  this  Monastery  doubtless 
afforded  some  advantages  for  mission  work,  as  the  people  came 
together  there  for  heathen  ceremonies,  but  the  chanting  of 
monks,  the  beating  of  gongs  and  cymbals,  were  a  serious  hin- 
drance to  comfort  and  study.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Culbertson  arrived 
in  Ningpo  a  short  time  before  Mr.  Lowrie,  and  rented  a  house 
in  that  city.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Loomis  were  their  fellow  passengers 
toChusan,  and  on  advice  of  the  mission,  settled  there  until  the 
island  was  evacuated  by  the  British  troops,  in  August,  1846, 
when,  on  request  of  the  Mandarins,  they  left  it  and  joined  their 
associates  within  the  Treaty  limits.  On  the  i6th  of  May,  1845, 
a  Presbyterian  Church  was  organized  in  Ningpo.  Mr.  Culbert- 
son >yas  chosen  pastor.  Dr.  McCartee  elder,  and  formally  or- 
dained to  that  office,  Messrs.  Way  and  Lowrie  acting  as  assistant 
elders  in  the  ordination  service.     Besides  the  three   clerical 


44  CENTRAL    CHINA    MISSION. 

brethren,  the  church  membership  consisted  of  Dr.  McCartee, 
Mrs.  Culbertson,  Mrs.  Way,  Miss  Aldersey  and  her  two  Java 
girls,  and  Hung  Apoo,  the  recently  baptized  convert. 

During  the  Summer  a  boys'  boarding  school  was  opened,  and 
not  long  after  one  of  the  boys  and  two  members  of  Miss  Alder- 
sey's  family  united  with  the  Church.  In  the  examination  of 
native  candidates  Dr.  McCartee  acted  as  interpreter.  From 
necessity,  at  first,  the  Lord's  Supper  was  celebrated  in  English, 
but  when  the  elements  were  handed  to  the  Chinese  converts, 
the  elder  repeated  to  them  in  their  own  language  our  Lord's 
words  at  its  institution.  Dr.  McCartee's  facility  in  acquiring 
the  Ningpo  colloquial,  enabled  him  early  to  add  to  his  medical 
duties  a  chapel  service  in  a  room  adjoining  the  boys'  school, 
which  he  kept  up  for  eleven  years. 

Mr.  Lowrie,  in  a  letter  to  his  father,  near  the  close  of  1846, 
thus  speaks  of  him  ;  "  Dr.  McCartee,  who  has  more  fluency  of 
tongue  than  I  have,  talks  like  a  native,  and  has  a  command  of 
words  quite  unexampled  for  a  person  who  has  been  so  short  a 
time  in  China."  His  medical  practice  was  not  limited  to  his 
patients  and  dispensary  in  the  city,  but  in  the  villages  around 
he  had  opportunities  of  relieving  physical  ills,  and  imparting 
Christian  truth  by  distribution  of  the  issues  of  the  press.  In 
his  annual  report  for  1850,  we  find  the  number  of  patients  dur- 
ing the  year  2,238,  of  whom  302  are  women,  and  later  he  reports 
as  many  as  200  daily.  From  the  journal  of  Mr.  Lowrie  it 
would  seem  that  most  of  the  earlier  cases  calling  for  treatment 
were  of  opium  poisoning.  The  same  journal  gives  an  illustra- 
tion of  native  medical  practice.  Mr.  Lowrie  accompanied  his 
colleague  to  a  respectable  family,  where  a  man  was  afflicted 
with  dropsy.  The  diagnosis  of  his  native  doctor  was  that  he 
had  clotted  horse  blood  that  had  feet  and  could  walk.  His 
loathesome  prescription  not  killing  the  monster,  another  pro- 
fessional native  was  sent  for,  who  administered  a  toad  to  be 
swallowed,  which  was  equally  ineffectual. 

In  1847,  Rev.  John  W.  Quarterman,  brother  of  Mrs.  Way, 
from  Liberty  County,  Georgia,  joined  the  mission.  His  princi- 
pal work  was  in  the  boys'  boarding  school,  being  at  first  assist- 


CENTRAL    CHINA    MISSION.  45 

ant  of  Mr.  Way,  and  then  in  full  charge  as  principal,  until  his 
death  in  1857,  which  occurred  during  the  ever  regretful  absence 
from  the  country  of  his  medical  colleague. 

Two  years  after  the  death  of  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Way, 
with  his  family,  returned  to  the  United  States,  from  failure  of 
health,  and  for  most  of  his  subsequent  life  has  been  a  pastor 
in  his  native  State  of  Georgia.  From  the  single-minded  devo- 
tion of  these  two  superintendents,  especially  of  Mr.  Quarterman, 
who  resided  in  the  school  building,  came  the  first  native  teach- 
ers and  evangelists  and  pastors  of  the  mission. 

One  of  these  early  pupils  and  converts  was  Ming  Geen,  from 
Bao-ko-Tah,  an  account  of  whose  Christian  character  and 
peaceful  death  in  July,  185 1,  written  by  Dr.  McCartee,  maybe 
found  in  the  Foreign  Missionary  of  January,  1852,  the  first 
fruits  of  the  Ningpo  Mission  gathered  into  the  harvest  above, 
and  the  first  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  his  native  village,  where  is 
now  a  flourishing  church.  Another  of  these  boys  was  Kying 
Ling  Yin,  the  first  ordained  pastor  of  a  self-supporting  church 
in  China.  In  1845  Dr.  McCartee  was  called  to  see  a  man  se- 
verely wounded,  about  two  miles  in  the  country.  Here  he  be- 
came acquainted  with  a  bright  lad  ten  years  old,  a  nephew  of 
the  wounded  man,  and  was  permitted  to  take  him  home  with 
him,  and  place  him  in  the  boys'  boarding  school,  where  he  de- 
veloped first  into  a  teacher,  then  became  a  student  of  theology, 
was  licensed  and  ordained,  and  in  1866  died  pastor  of  the  Yu 
Yiao  Church,  soon  after  the  death  of  his  wife,  who  was  a  grad- 
uate of  the  girls'  boarding  school.  The  surviving  daughter 
was  adopted  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  McCartee,  and  is  the  brilliant 
Ymay  King,  M.  D.,  graduate  of  the  Medical  College  in  New 
York,  with  its  first  honors,  and  now  medical  missionary  in 
Japan. 

The  year  1847  was  made  memorable  by  the  martyr  death  of 
Walter  M.  Lowrie,  who  was  cast  into  the  sea  by  pirates,  when 
on  a  return  voyage  from  Shanghai  to  Ningpo.  This  event  cast 
a  deep  shadow  of  sorrow  over  all  the  mission  circles  of  China, 
and  testimonials  of  his  distinguished  worth  and  promise  by 
eminent  men  from  the  four  continents  form  a  conspicuous  ap- 


4^  CENTRAL    CHINA    MISSION. 

pendix  to  the  volume  of  his  Memoirs,  edited  by  his  father. 
There  is  no  guide  book  so  valuable  to  a  candidate  for  the  mis- 
sion field  of  China,  next  to  the  inspired  one  which  he  drew 
from  his  pocket  when  sinking  under  the  waves  and  threw  back 
into  the  vessel  for  his  captors  and  murderers,  as  the  Memoir  of 
Walter  M.  Lowrie. 

In  1848  Rev.  Henry  V.  Rankin  and  Rev.  J.  K.  Wight,  and 
their  wives,  sailed  for  Ningpo.  The  Sabbath  School  of  the 
Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  St.  Louis  had  assumed  the  en- 
tire support  of  Mr.  Lowrie,  and  on  his  death,  this  pledge  was 
transferred  to  Mr.  Rankin,  and  gratefully  acknowledged  in  a 
.  monthly  correspondence  with  his  young  patrons.  He  died  July 
,w>^nnv2,  1863,  at  Shanglun^,  to  which  place  he  had  gone  in  great 
j  feebleness  as  a  health  resort.     The  Civil  War  was  raging  in  his 

native  land,  and  in  his  last  communion  with  his  church  at 
Ningpo,  as  he  wrote  to  friends  at  home,  "  the  elements  used 
were  bread  from  Southern  wheat  fields  and  wine  from  Northern 
vineyards."  A  brief  memoir  of  his  active  life,  written  by  his 
brother.  Rev.  Dr.  Edward  E.  Rankin,  is  among  the  biographies 
appended  to  Dr.  Lowrie's  "  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Board," 
published  in  1868.  For  many  years  his  widow  has  filled  a  use- 
ful sphere  in  the  position  of  a  pastor's  wife  at  home,  and  a 
daughter,  Mrs.  C.  Rodney  Janvier,  is  serving  the  Master  in  In- 
dia. Mr.  Wight  was  detailed  with  Mr.  Culbertson  to  open  a 
new  mission  in  Shanghai  in  1850.  After  two  attempts  to  with- 
stand the  effects  of  the  climate  upon  his  constitution,  he  was 
compelled  finally  to  return  to  the  United  States  in  1857, 
where  he  has  since  engaged  in  pastoral  work.  One  of  his 
daughters  has  recently  entered  the  field  from  which  he  sorrow- 
fully withdrew  in  his  early  days. 

Dr.  Culbertson,  the  first  pastor  of  the  Ningpo  Church,  died 
August  28,  1862.  He  was  a  graduate  of  West  Point,  and 
resigned  a  captaincy  in  the  United  States  Army  to  enter  a 
Theological  Seminary  and  become  a  Foreign  Missionary. 
When  the  Civil  War  in  his  native  land  broke  out,  he  struggled 
for  a  while  with  the  question  of  duty  to  the  country  which  had 
educated  and  fitted  him  for  military  service.     But  he  had  spent 


CENTRAL    CHINA    MISSION.  47 

eleven  years  (ten  of  them  as  the  associate  of  Dr.  Bridgman  un- 
til the  death  of  that  distinguished  missionary  of  the  American 
Board)  in  the  work  of  re-translating  the  sacred  Scriptures, 
which  was  now  nearing  its  completion.  Happily  he  continued 
in  it  until  his  own  sudden  removal,  as  he  was  giving  his  last 
touches  to  the  only  five  remaining  chapters  of  this  invaluable 
legacy  to  China.  He  is  still  represented  in  the  land  of  her  birth 
by  a  daughter,  Mrs.  Leonard  Kip,  of  Amoy,  and  his  widow,  re- 
turning home,  was,  until  her  recent  death,  the  adviser  and 
helper  of  many  about  to  enter  the  field. 

In  1849  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Loomis  were  compelled  to  succumb 
to  the  effects  of  a  malarious  climate,  and  return  home,  but  not 
to  leave  the  mission  work,  in  which  they  had  sixteen  years  of 
united  service,  when  she  was  called  to  her  rest.  Dr.  Loomis, 
until  his  lamented  death  in  July  last,  was  the  veteran  mission- 
ary to  the  Chinese  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  the  efficient  helper 
and  counsellor  of  fellow-laborers  passing  through  the  Golden 
Gate  to  and  from  the  eastern  world. 

The  year  of  their  departure  brought  to  Ningpo  Mr.  and  Mrs- 
Coulter,  he  to  take  charge  of  the  press,  with  a  view,  also,  after  fur- 
ther preparatory  study,  of  entering  the  ministry.  But  from  the  first 
the  climate  marked  him  for  a  victim,  and  in  December  1852, 
his  sorrowing  colleagues  laid  his  manly  form  in  the  mission 
cemetery.  The  following  year,  1850,  the  mission  was  reinforced 
by  Rev.  W.  A.  P.  and  Samuel  Martin  and  their  wives.  The 
failing  health  of  the  latter,  eight  years  later,  obliged  him  to 
leave  this  field,  since  which  he  has  done  good  service  among 
one  of  our  Indian  tribes,  and  also  as  a  Home  Missionary.  The 
former  is  the  distinguished  President  of  the  Government  Col- 
lege at  Peking,  having  in  1869  resigned  his  connection  with  the 
Board  on  his  appointment  to  that  office. 

The  foregoing  sketch  embraces  all  the  missionaries  connected 
with  the  Ningpo,  or  Central  China  Mission,  with  its  outgrowth, 
the  North  China  Mission,  during  the  first  six  years  of  its  his- 
tory, at  the  end  of  which  time  (1850)  the  names  of  such  as 
were  in  active  service,  either  at  Ningpo  or  Shanghai,  in  the  order 
of  their  arrival  out,  were  Dr.  McCartee,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Way,  Mr. 


48  CENTRAL    CHINA    MISSION. 

and  Mrs.  Culbertson,  Mr.  Quarterman,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rankin, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wight,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Coulter  and  the  two  brothers 
Martin  and  their  wives,  sixteen  in  all,  the  greater  part  of  whom 
remain  to  this  day,  but  not  one  in  the  field  where  they  began 
their  evangelistic  labors,  and  some,  as  we  have  seen,  have  fallen 
asleep. 

At  the  end  of  the  same  period,  the  Church  records  show  but 
six  native  members.  It  was  a  time  of  seed  sowing,  the  reaping 
was  to  come  later.  It  was  a  time,  too,  when  the  painful  exer- 
cise of  discipline  was  called  for  and  applied,  and  hence  the 
number  remaining  of  the  faithful  corresponds  with  the  number 
of  years  since  the  Gospel  message  first  reached  them.  One  of 
the  great  necessities  of  this  early  day  was  a  Christian  literature 
and  words  to  express  to  the  native  mind  Bible  truth.  Mr.  Cole 
having  left  the  mission  in  1847,  the  press  came  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Mr.  Loomis,  and  then  Mr.  Coulter,  until  his  death. 
Tracts  and  portions  of  the  Bible  were  printed  and  circulated, 
and  text-books  prepared  for  the  schools.  The  introduction  of 
Romanized  type  in  printing  the  vernacular  language,  opened 
the  way  for  wider  popular  instruction  than  was  possible  through 
the  use  of  the  Chinese  character,  and  was  specially  helpful  in 
the  girls'  school.  The  ability  to  read  was  not  reckoned  among 
the  accomplishments  of  a  Chinese  lady,  rather  a  deep-rooted 
prejudice  existed  against  it,  but  to  read  her  own  colloquial  by 
means  of  the  Roman  alphabet,  was  found  to  be  an  easy  task 
for  her,  and  thus  old  prejudice  began  to  give  way. 

In  1846  Mrs.  Cole  secured  with  difficulty  two  native  girls  as 
a  nucleus  of  a  boarding  school,  which  soon  after  her  leaving 
the  mission  was  assumed  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Loomis,  under  whom 
the  number  of  girls  increased  to  sixteen.  In  1840  the  superin- 
tendence devolved  upon  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rankin,  and  was  con- 
tinued in  them  so  long  as  they  remained  in  Ningpo.  Under 
their  care  the  school  increased,  and  when  united  with  that  of 
Miss  Aldersey,  numbered  seventy.  This  girls'  boarding  school, 
in  connection  with  the  one  for  boys,  laid  the  foundation  of 
many  Christian  households.     It  also  opened  a  new  chapter  in 


CENTRAL    CHINA    MISSION.  49 

the    history    of   all    the   missions  of  the  Board  in  the  eastern 
world. 

Not  long  after  the  assumption  of  the  girls'  school  by  the  last 
named  superintendents,  a  young  lady  residing  in  Newark 
brought  me  a  letter  she  had  received  from  them,  inviting  her  to 
become  a  member  of  their  family  and  associate  teacher  in  this 
school.  It  was  my  own  brother  and  her  own  sister  who  had  ex- 
tended this  invitation,  and  she  said  that  her  answer,  favorable 
or  otherwise,  was  for  my  judgment  to  decide.  My  conclusion 
was  soon  reached,  in  which  she  cordially  acquiesced,  and  the 
Annual  Report  for  1852  records  the  name  of  Miss  Juana  M. 
Knight  among  its  Ningpo  missionaries,  and  the  roll  of  no 
other  of  the  Board's  Eastern  missions  is  graced  in  like  manner. 

True,  her  maiden  name  does  not  again  appear,  but  in  the 
change  to  which  she  yielded,  she  became  the  pioneer  of  many 
of  her  sex,  who,  entering  on  mission  work  unmarried,  have  ad- 
ded to  their  strength  as  well  as  joy  by  a  new  departure. 

Dr.  D.  Bethune  and  Mrs.  Juana  McCartee,  after  long  service 
together  in  China,  are  spending  their  later  years  in  like  manner 
in  Japan,  and  missionaries  now  in  the  former  fields  are  reaping 
a  rich  harvest  from  the  seed  planted  by  them  and  their  asso- 
ciates forty-eight  years  ago. 

January,  1892. 


Ihe  Presbyterittii  Press  in  Ctiip. 


The  Presbyterian  press  in  China  was  established  as  an  essen- 
tial agency  in  the  evangelization  of  that  empire,  and  has  an 
interesting  and  instructive  history.  The  art  of  printing,  as 
practiced  by  the  Chinese,  antedates  by  centuries  the  art  as 
practiced  by  Christian  nations.  There  are  on  the  shelves  of 
the  mission  library  in  New  York  nearly  one  thousand  volumes 
printed  after  the  manner  of  their  earlier  editions,  which  were 
read  by  Chinese  scholars  during  the  dark  ages  of  Europe.  But 
this  method  of  printing  is  not  adapted  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
Church  in  her  missionary  work.  Briefly  explained,  the  matter 
to  be  printed  is  written  on  a  sheet  of  transparent  paper  of  the 
size  of  the  page,  which  is  then  pasted  on  a  block  of  wood,  the 
written  side  down.  The  engraver  cuts  away  all  the  blank 
spots  in  and  around  the  written  letters,  leaving  them  in  relief 
upon  the  block.  An  impression  taken  from  this  by  hand  or 
mallet  will  give  the  counterpart  of  the  written  sheet. 

The  substitution  of  movable  metal  types  for  these  manipu- 
lated wooden  blocks  encountered  the  difficulty  of  requiring 
some  4,000  types  instead  of  the  smaller  number  used  in  our 
own  language,  and  this  was  preceded  by  the  greater  difficulty 
of  reducing  the  30,000  or  more  characters  found  in  Chinese 
literature  to  this  fewer  number. 

While  our  Foreign  Board  was  in  its  non-age  as  a  missionary 
society  in  Pittsburgh,  a  mission  to  China,  from  which  the  Gos- 
pel was  wholly  excluded,  was  one  of  its  declared  objects.  The 
Hon.  Walter  Lowrie,  then  Secretary  of  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate, also  Vice-President  of  the  Society,  as  a  means  to  that  end, 
acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  written  language  of  China,  and 
offered  to  give  direction  in  his  study  to  missionaries  for  that 


PRESBYTERIAN    PRESS    IN    CHINA.  5 1 

field.  By  correspondence  with  Dr.  Robert  Baird,  then  in 
Paris,  it  was  learned  that  the  discovery  had  there  been  made 
that  a  portion  of  the  Chinese  characters  were  divisible,  and 
that  by  different  combinations  of  their  elements  all  the  lan- 
guage now  in  use  could  be  expressed.  On  the  advice  of  Mr. 
Lowrie,  with  a  pledge  from  Mr.  James  Lenox  of  meeting  the 
expense,  an  order  was  sent  in  1836  to  a  typographer  of  Paris 
for  the  required  number  of  matrices,  at  first  supposed  to  be 
9,000,  though  afterwards  less  than  half  that  number  was 
deemed  sufficient.  Two  years  later  2,000  of  these  were  re- 
ported as  finished,  but  it  was  not  until  1844  that  about  3,500 
in  all  reached  Macao  in  charge  of  an  American  printer,  Mr. 
Robert  Cole. 

In  December,  1837,  the  first  missionaries  of  the  Board  em- 
barked for  China,  just  one  year  from  the  time  Mr.  Lowrie  en- 
tered upon  the  office  of  Corresponding  Secretary,  and  more 
than  a  year  after  the  engagement  for  the  type  matrices  had 
been  authorized.  Thus  the  press  was  the  herald  of  the  mis- 
sion. Then  missionaries  were  instructed  to  locate  at  some 
convenient  place  outside  the  empire,  study  the  language, 
labor  among  such  Chinese  as  were  accessible,  and  wait  the  open- 
ings of  Providence.  On  October  31,  1837,  a  committee  of  the 
General  Assembly  received  the  transfer  of  the  Western  Mis- 
sionary Society  and  organized  the  present  Board,  Mr.  Lowrie 
retaining  the  office  of  Corresponding  Secretary,  on  which  he 
had  entered  the  year  before.  In  May  following,  1838,  he  pub- 
lished his  first  annual  report,  and  in  referring  to  the  station  to 
be  occupied  by  the  brethren  sent  to  China,  among  other  es- 
sentials to  be  sought  for  was  "  a  printing  office  on  a  scale  ca- 
pable of  extension,  so  as  to  require  a  printer  and  such  assist- 
ants as  may  be  necessary  to  print  Bibles  and  books  to  the  best 
advantage,  and  in  any  numbers  that  the  means  of  the  Board 
will  permit." 

Rev.  Walter  M.  Lowrie,  son  of  the  Secretary,  arrived  in 
Macao,  from  the  United  States,  in  June,  1842,  the  year  of  the 
treaty  of  peace,  and  after  two  years  study  of  the  language,  was 
prepared  on  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Cole,  with  the  font  of  type  and 


52  PRESBYTERIAN    PRESS    IN    CHINA. 

a  hand-press,  to  render  essential  assistance  in  putting  the  ap- 
paratus in  working  order.  This  took  months  of  close  applica- 
tion and  hard  labor.  Mr.  Cole  did  not  understand  Chinese, 
and  the  proper  arrangement  in  cases  of  between  3,000  and 
4,000  types,  and  the  setting  them  up  for  the  use  of  the  press, 
required  qualifications  which  he  did  not  possess. 

When  the  Treaty  port  of  Ningpo  was  occupied  in  1844,  the 
press  was  removed  to  that  city.  Mr.  Cole  leaving  soon  after,  the 
duties  of  superintendent  devolved  upon  Rev.  A.  W.  Loomis, 
one  of  the  brethren  of  the  mission,  until  the  arrival  in  1849  of 
another  printer,  Mr.  M.  S.  Coulter.  Mr.  Coulter  gave  promise 
of  great  usefulness  in  the  important  ofifice  for  which  he  was 
sent  out,  as  also  in  other  departments  of  mission  work,  but  was 
not  permitted  long  to  labor.  He  died  near  the  close  of  1852. 
The  superintendency  then  devolved  upon  another  of  the  mis- 
sionary brethren,  Rev.  Richard  Q.  Way,  until  the  arrival  of 
Mr.  William  Gamble  in  October,  1858,  a  practical  printer,  who 
brought  with  him  a  new  set  of  matrices  and  electrotype 
machine,  and  by  whose  energy  and  genius  an  important  impulse 
was  given  to  the  power  of  the  press.  Dr.  John  C.  Lowrie,  in 
a  paper  on  Chinese  Missions,  published  in  1868,  says  "  that 
but  for  the  order  of  the  committee  in  1836,  for  a  set  of  these 
matrices,  this  great  invention  would  not  have  come  into  use. 
So  little  confidence  was  felt  in  its  practicability,  that  no  other 
missionary  institution  would  give  it  their  patronage — only  two 
other  orders  were  received  by  the  artist,  and  without  at  least 
three  orders  he  would  not  proceed  with  the  work."  And  I 
may  add  that  but  for  the  knowledge  of  the  language  acquired 
by  his  revered  father,  in  the  midst  of  official  duties  at  Wash- 
ington, this  important  order  would  not  have  been  suggested. 
Dr.  William  M.  Paxton,  in  his  address  at  the  funeral  of  Mr. 
Lowrie,  says:  "  It  seemed  singular  to  see  a  statesman,  amid  the 
cares  and  labors  of  public  life,  rising  two  hours  earlier  in  the 
morning,  to  study  the  language  of  a  people  so  distant  from  us, 
and  in  so  little  sympathy  with  ourselves." 

Soon  after  the  establishment  of  the  press  in  Ningpo,  by  a 
joint  arrangement  between  Dr.  Wells  Williams,  of  the  American 


PRESBYTERIAN    PRESS    IN    CHINA.  53 

Board,  and  Mr.  Lowrie,  an  order  was  sent  to  Berlin  for  another 
set  of  matrices,  of  a  different  size  from  the  Paris  font,  which 
was  the  set  taken  with  him  by  Mr.  Gamble  in  1858,  some 
twelve  years  after  the  order  was  given.  These  matrices  were 
received  in  New  York  in  separate  parcels,  at  long  intervals, 
when  they  underwent  the  close  inspection,  with  a  magnifier,  of 
the  venerable  Secretary,  who  would  occasionally  detect  a  de- 
fect or  a  duplicate,  to  be  rejected  and  returned.  One  day, 
after  a  long  and  wearisome  study  of  these  punches,  he  said  to 
me:  "When  this  font  is  completed,  I  shall  consider  my  work 
for  China  as  ended."  This  was  more  than  twenty  years  after 
he  began  his  encounter  with  the  great  obstacle  to  the  indefinite 
multiplication  of  the  Scriptures  in  that  Empire. 

Both  these  fonts  of  type  when  sent  out  to  do  their  work 
were  yet  incomplete.  China  is  called  the  Flowery  Land,  and 
in  the  exquisite  finish  of  its  printed  characters  her  artists  emu- 
late the  Divine  skill  displayed  in  the  flowers  of  the  field.  The 
same  degree  of  excellence  was  required  in  the  new  method 
introduced  among  them  as  in  their  own.  After  all  the  minute- 
ness of  inspection  and  corrections  before  the  matrices  were 
sent  out,  Chinese  criticism  could  detect  blemishes.  Five  years 
after  the  press  had  been  in  operation,  the  Annual  Report  of 
1849,  reads  :  "After  long  delay  the  font  of  Chinese  divisible 
metal  type  has  been  completed.  It  was  found  that  between 
200  and  300  of  the  combinations  did  not  form  perfect  charac- 
ters, though  perfectly  legible.  The  matrices  for  replacing 
these  have  been  received  and  sent  out,  with  the  exception  of 
sixty  daily  expected." 

In  i860  the  press  was  removed  to  Shanghai,  as  the  commer- 
cial mart  and  as  affording  easier  and  more  extended  commu- 
nication for  its  publications  with  the  interior  of  the  empire. 
The  same  year  a  power  press  was  added  to  the  two  hand- 
presses  then  in  use. 

The  superintendency  of  Mr.  Gamble  from  1858  to  1869  was 
marked  with  great  and  permanent  improvements.  It  was  no 
longer  necessary  to  send  to  Paris  or  Berlin  to  supply  defects 
or  enlarge  the  fonts.     He  created  his  own  foundry  and  formed 


54  PRESBYTERIAN    PRESS    IX    CHINA. 

types  at  far  less  expense,  from  which  he  filled  orders  sent  from 
both  those  cities  for  a  smaller  font  than  any  in  use.  In  this, 
small  pica,  he  printed  the  New  Testament  at  a  cost  of  six  and 
seven  cents,  and  in  forms  convenient  for  a  native  to  carry  about 
in  the  pocket  of  his  sleeve.  In  1867  he  refers  to  the  success- 
ful commencement  of  electrotyping,  and  to  twenty-five  mil- 
lions of  pages  printed,  of  which  ten  millions  were  the  Scriptures. 
Among  the  books  are  Dr.  Hepburn's  Japanese  and  English  Dic- 
tionary, and  he  adds,  "the  demand  for  books  is  so  great  that  after 
the  addition  of  three  new  presses  during  the  year,  the  supply 
is  still  insufficient,  and  expresses  regret  that  the  Secretary,  who, 
more  than  any  other  man,  was  the  founder  of  the  press,  could 
not  visit  the  establishment  in  its  present  advanced  condition." 

After  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Gamble,  Rev.  John  Wherry  and 
Rev.  John  Butler  successively  took  charge  of  the  Press,  and 
were  succeeded  by  Mr.  John  L.  Mateer,  who  was  sent  out  for 
that  special  purpose.  In  his  yearly  report  for  1872,  Mr.  Ma- 
teer refers  to  the  four  sizes  of  matrices  that  have  been  made, 
and  of  a  fifth  (double  pica),  then  under  way,  saying  that  "  he 
is  prepared  to  make  several  sizes  and  varieties  of  Japanese 
type,  and  that  eight  printing  presses  are  running  constantly 
and  are  hardly  sufficient  to  do  all  the  work,  that  he  has  re- 
ceived orders  from  the  Government  authorities  at  Peking  for 
type  and  materials,  and  believes  that  the  Chinese  are  begin- 
ning to  throw  away  their  cumbersome  block  system  and  adopt 
ours." 

Mr.  Mateer  was  obliged  to  leave  Shanghai  in  1876  from  failure 
of  health,  and  the  office  of  superintendent  has  since  (until  1891) 
been  filled  successively  by  Rev.  Messrs.  W.  S.  Holt,  J.  M,  W. 
Farnham  and  G.  F.  Fitch.  The  last  reports  by  Dr.  Farnham 
describe  the  plant  as  consisting  of  a  foundry  with  seven  cut- 
ting machines  constantly  at  work,  which  casts  six  sizes  of 
Chinese  type,  besides  English,  Korean,  Manchu,  Japanese  and 
Hebrew  ;  machinery  for  stereotyping,  electrotyping,  matrix 
making,  type  cutting  and  engraving  ;  eight  presses,  of  which 
three  are  run  by  gas  ;  bindery,  for  both  native  and  foreign 
styles.     About    100  workmen   are   employed ;  over   fifty-nine 


PRESBYTERIAN    PRESS    IN    CHINA.  55 

million  pages  printed  in  one  year,  and  the  yearly  profits  aver- 
age $5,000.  The  publications  of  all  or  nearly  all  the  mission- 
ary societies  in  China  have  been  issued  from  this  press,  also 
those  of  the  American  and  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Societies  and  the  various  Tract  Societies.  In  short,  Chinese 
Christian  literature,  both  in  its  wider  and  stricter  meaning,  to 
a  large  extent,  bears  the  imprint  of  the  "American  Presbyter- 
ian Mission  Press." 

It  seems  hardly  proper  that  an  ordained  missionary  should 
be  charged  with  such  a  many-sided  business  establishment.  It 
has  been  the  aim  of  the  Board  from  the  beginning  to  engage 
for  this  service  Christian  laymen  who  are  practical  printers. 
Such  were  Messrs.  Cole,  Coulter,  Gamble,  and  J.  L.  Mateer, 
and  the  Annual  Report  of  1892  states  that  the  press  is  now  in 
charge  of  one  of  like  experience  and  character  with  these, 
Mr.  Gilbert  Mcintosh,  and  that  the  issues  for  the  preceding 
year  were  41,677,300  pages,  more  than  half  being  Scrip- 
tures. The  question  may  soon  arise  whether  the  control 
of  this  great  interest  may  not  wisely  be  surrendered  by 
the  Board.  Printing  by  divisible  metallic  types  has  become 
an  institution  in  China  which  will  gradually  supplant  its  an- 
cient system.  There  is  money  in  it,  and  this  is  an  argument 
for  the  coming  change  which  a  native  printer  appreciates. 
Over  $50,000  profits  on  job  work  have  within  the  last  nine 
years  been  paid  into  the  mission  treasury.  Rival  presses  run 
by  natives  and  foreigners  are  coming  into  use,  and  are  sure 
to  multiply,  some  of  them,  unhappily,  to  counteract  the  work 
of  Christian  missions. 

But  whether  the  establishment  at  Shanghai  continues  under 
the  control  of  the  Board  or  is  parted  with,  the  Chinese  Press, 
with  its  movable  metallic  type,  will  remain  a  monument  of  the 
missionary  zeal  and  wisdom  of  its  founder,  and  will  increase  in 
power  and  efficiency  year  by  year,  and  by  its  agency  the  Gos- 
pel will  be  made  known  throughout  every  province  of  the 
Chinese  Empire. 


Hdissioii  to  tlie  Chinese  iii  Colifornio. 


In  1852  the  General  Assembly  sitting  in  Philadelphia,  de- 
tached from  the  Synod  of  New  York  the  Presbytery  of  Cali- 
fornia, and  constituted  with  it  and  the  newly  formed 
Presbyteries  of  Stockton  and  Oregon,  the  Synod  of  the  Pacific. 
There  were  at  the  time  within  these  three  Presbyteries  but  two 
settled  pastors,  and  less  than  two  hundred  church-members. 
The  next  year,  1853,  Elder  W.  W.  Caldwell,  from  San  Fran- 
cisco, was  enrolled  a  commissioner  of  the  General  Assembly, 
and  was  an  object  lesson  of  the  growth  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  being  the  first  representative  of  that  body  from  the 
Pacific  coast.  The  same  year  that  this  Synod  was  constituted, 
the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  acting  upon  a  memorial  of  the 
Presbytery  of  California,  established  a  mission  to  the  Chinese 
within  its  bounds.  The  fame  of  the  gold  mines  had  during 
three  years  brought  to  our  shores  many  thousands  of  this  peo- 
ple, nearly  all  from  the  Canton  Province.  It  was  regarded  as 
an  omen  for  good  to  China  that  her  heathen  should  be  attract- 
ed to  this  Christian  land  to  be  taught  our  religion  and  go  back 
as  light-bearers  to  their  own  country.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  the  more  sanguine  hopes  of  that  early  day  have  not  been 
fully  realized,  and  yet  the  duty  of  the  Christian  Church  to 
meet  this  tide  of  Mongolian  immigration  with  the  Gospel  is  no 
less  clear  now  in  its  decline,  than  when  it  was  in  its  full  swell. 
The  most  successful  agencies  for  evangelizing  the  Chinese  as 
well  as  other  heathen  nations,  are  those  established  in  the 
home  land. 

Rev.  William  Speer,  having  regained  at  home  the  health  he 
lost  in  a  four  years'  service  as  missionary  at  Canton,  was  ap- 
pointed to  this  new  field,  for  which  his  experience  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  Canton  dialect  specially  qualified  him.  On  the  5th 
of  October,  1852,  he  and  Mrs.  Speer  sailed  from  New  York  for 


MISSION    TO    THE    CHINESE    IN    CALIFORNIA.  57 

Aspinwall  in  the  crowded  steamer  Georgia,  and  on  the  6th  of 
November  they  entered  the  Golden  Gate-  His  account  of  the 
voyage  on  the  two  oceans,  of  the  journey  through  the  Isthmus 
by  rail  and  boat  and  mule-back,  of  delays  and  exposure  at 
Panama,  is  replete  with  incidents  in  striking  contrast  with 
most  missionary  journeys  at  the  present  day.  His  fellow- 
passengers,  bent  upon  the  one  object  of  engaging  in  the  lottery 
of  gold  digging,  and  for  which  they  had  abandoned  quiet 
homes  and  useful  occupations,  were  not  a  choice  compan- 
ionship, but  the  journey  ended  without  harm,  and  at 
the  end  of  a  month  and  a  day  from  their  parting  with  Christian 
friends  in  New  York,  our  missionaries  found  a  welcome  in 
Christian  homes  in  San  Francisco.  This  welcome  was  exten- 
ded not  only  by  American  citizens,  but  several  Chinamen  who 
had  been  instructed  in  Christian  schools  at  home,  received 
them  gladly. 

Dr.  Speer  at  once  entered  upon  his  mission  work  with  de- 
voted earnestness,  and  secured  the  confidence  of  the  com- 
munity, both  native  and  foreign.  On  the  5th  of  November, 
1853,  he  organized  a  Chinese  church  in  San  Francisco,  the 
first  on  this  continent,  consisting  of  four  members,  one  of 
whom  was  elected  ruling  elder,  and  who  the  next  year  had  a 
seat  in  Presbytery.  He  took  early  and  vigorous  measures  to 
secure  a  permanent  home  for  the  mission,  and  succeeded 
through  a  local  association,  which  became  incorporated.  A  lot 
was  bought,  and  a  building  suitable  for  parsonage,  chapel,  and 
school  erected  and  dedicated,  in  July,  1854. 

The  subscriptions  for  the  same  were  $14,000,  of  which  $2,000 
was  from  Chinese  merchants.  An  additional  sum  of  $5,000 
being  needed,  this  was  loaned  by  the  Board,  having  been  do- 
nated to  it  for  that  purpose  by  Mr.  James  Lenox.  Subse- 
quently, the  original  subscribers  relinquished  their  claims  upon 
the  property  in  favor  of  the  Board,  whose  title  to  it  was  then 
perfected.  In  1881,  the  Board  requiring  more  ample  accommo- 
dations, purchased  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  building  for 
$22,500,  and  recently  the  original  mission  house  was  sold. 

Besides  Dr.   Speer's  acquaintance  with  their  language,  his 


So  MISSION    TO    THE    CHINESE    IN    CALIFORNIA. 

knowledge  of  medicine  and  former  practice  of  it  among  them, 
gave  him  opportunity  for  securing  the  confidence  and  good 
will  of  the  Chinese.  He  opened  a  dispensary,  and  many  pa- 
tients resorted  to  it,  some  from  the  mines  and  some  from  emi- 
grant vessels  on  arrival  in  port,  whose  experience  was  often 
not  unlike  that  of  African  slaves  on  the  middle  passage.  Old, 
decayed  hulks  were  used  for  passenger  ships,  which  were  over- 
crowded, and  in  one  instance,  out  of  520  who  embarked  in 
China,  one-fourth  of  them  died  at  sea.  The  wards  of  the 
public  hospitals  gave  no  welcome  to  sick  Chinamen,  and  the 
lives  of  not  a  few  were  saved  by  means  of  the  mission  dispen- 
sary, and  the  Mission  House  in  all  its  history  and  changes 
has  been  a  bureau  of  information,  both  religious  and  secular, 
for  the  Mongolian  stranger. 

In  connection  with  the  church  was  a  Sabbath  school,  also  a 
week  day  evening  school  was  opened,  at  first  for  pay  scholars, 
afterwards  for  all.  A  periodical  called  "  The  Oriental,"  was 
issued  from  the  Mission  House  in  English  and  Chinese,  and 
found  circulation  in  the  mining  regions  and  in  the  cities. 

Dr.  Speer  was  aided  in  his  work  by  his  elder,  and  also  by  one 
of  the  church  members  as  colporteur,  but  his  abundant  labors 
overtasked  his  physical  strength  as  they  had  done  in  Canton. 
He  took  a  short  vacation  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and,  being 
invigorated  by  exercise  and  mountain  air,  returned  to  his  ac- 
customed duties  only  to  find  that  the  relief  experienced  was 
but  temporary,  and  that  a  protracted  visit  to  his  Pennsylvania 
home  was  his  most  judicious  remedy.  His  departure  from  the 
coast,  where  he  had  spent  four  years  of  faithful  service,  was 
attended  with  many  tokens  of  esteem  and  affection  from  the 
better  class  of  the  Chinese.  A  formal  complimentary  address 
was  inscribed  on  a  banner  of  silk,  to  which  were  added  other 
personal  presents.  In  acknowledging  these  testimonials,  the 
subject  of  them  says  :  "  Here  was  a  moving  proof  that  this 
quick-witted  and  suspicious  race  are  alive  to  the  same  tender 
feelings  with  ourselves  ;  that  they  can  appreciate  acts  of  kind" 
ness,  patience  and  disinterestedness  on  our  part,  and  that  our 


MISSION    TO    THE    CHINESE    IN    CALIFORNIA.  59 

people  little  fathom  the  susceptibility  of  mind  and  heart  which 
lies  beneath  their  still  and  passive  countenances." 

The  work  accomplished  by  Dr.  Speer  was  enduring  in  its  re- 
sults. "Its  fruits  appear  in  various  forms,"  says  his  immediate 
successor,  "and  his  name  is  held  in  grateful  remembrance  by 
many  of  the  Chinamen,  who  love  to  speak  of  him  as  the  Chi- 
naman's friend."  He  left  California  with  his  family  in  the 
Summer  of  1857,  hoping  to  resume  his  work  there,  but  a  fur- 
lough of  over  a  year  convinced  him  and  his  friends  that  this 
was  impracticable,  and  his  resignation  as  a  missionary  of  the 
Board  was  reluctantly  accepted. 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  a  missionary  life  so  useful 
and  so  attractive  to  himself  should  have  been  cut  short  by 
what  he  ascribed  "  to  error  and  imprudence  in  overtasking 
bodily  strength"  etc.,  and  this  error  has  a  wider  application 
than  to  him  alone  who  confesses  it.  In  1866  Dr.  Speer  was 
chosen  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  for  several 
years  found  congenial  employment  in  encouraging  candidates 
for  the  ministry  and  in  planning  for  their  support. 

For  more  than  two  years  the  California  field  was  unoccu- 
pied, save  by  native  and  local  helpers.  In  1859,  Rev.  Augustus 
W.  Loomis  and  wife  accepted  an  appointment  to  it,  both  having 
had  experience  as  missionaries  in  China.  But  the  dialect  of 
Ningpo,  where  their  lot  had  been  cast,  is  as  unlike  that  of  the 
Canton  emigrants,  as  German  is  unlike  English.  Dr.  Loomis, 
however,  had  acquired  the  Chinese  written  language,  and  pre- 
pared and  printed  books  in  it.  Besides,  he  entered  into  the 
preparatory  work  of  his  predecessor,  and  made  grateful  ac- 
knowledgment of  it.  Having  secured  a  Chinese  Christian 
teacher,  formerly  from  Hong  Kong,  he  commenced  Sabbath 
services  at  first  through  an  interpreter  ;  also  a  Thursday  even- 
ing prayer-meeting,  "  some  three  or  four  leading  in  prayer  and 
engaging  in  the  service  with  fervor  and  humility."  A  suspen- 
ded Sabbath-school  was  resumed  and  a  day  school  taken  in 
charge,  which  was  supported  from  the  public  school  funds. 
In  referring  to  this  department  of  mission  work  some  years 
later,    Dr.  Loomis  says  :     "  This    field   is    very   unlike   those 


6o  MISSION    TO    THE    CHINESE    IN    CAI  IFORNIA. 

which  our  brethren  have  spread  out  before  them  in  China,  In- 
dia and  Africa.  Here  the  population  is  uneasy  and  changing, 
like  the  shifting  sand  hills  along  our  shore."  Again  he  writes: 
"  From  the  character  and  condition  of  most  of  the  women 
brought  to  this  country,  our  work  lacks  that  feature  which  af- 
fords most  grounds  for  hope  in  all  other  mission  fields."  He 
refers  in  this  to  the  influence  which  in  heathen  lands  Christian 
schools  have  upon  households.  The  lack  of  families  and  of 
children  is  the  special  discouragement  of  missions  to  the 
Chinese  in  the  United  States. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Loomis  continued  their  joint  labors  on  the 
coast,  until  the  failing  health  of  the  latter  compelled  their  re- 
turn to  her  early  home  in  the  State  of  New  York,  where  as  her 
brother,  the  venerable  Dr  Henry  Kendall,  writes,  "she  beheld 
the  King  in  His  beauty,  and  fell  asleep  December  13,  1866." 

The  stricken  husband  then  resumed  his  work,  and  continued 
in  it  till  his  own  lamented  death  in  July,  1891.  It  was  one  of 
the  favoring  providences  of  God  that  a  man  of  such  practical 
wisdom  and  business  methods  was  assigned  to  this  field.  Be- 
sides his  special  mission  work,  he  was  for  a  score  of  years  an 
almost  indispensable  agent  of  the  Board,  as  adviser  and  helper 
of  its  long  list  of  Eastern  missionaries,  going  and  returning 
through  the  Golden  Gate. 

The  mission  to  the  Chinese  in  California  may  properly  be 
regarded  as  a  branch  of  the  Canton  mission.  The  relations  of 
the  two  are  closer  from  identity  of  spoken  language  than  what 
exists  between  Canton  and  Shanghai.  Some  of  the  brethren 
returning  from  Canton  have  found  permanent  or  temporary 
employment  on  our  coast,  and  in  this  change  of  location  and 
climate,  re-established  health  without  intermitting  missionary 
work.  While  admitting  that  the  American  soil  has  been  less 
favorable  than  their  own  for  evangelistic  labor  among  the 
Chinese,  yet  the  vine  planted  forty  years  ago  has  spread  and 
taken  root  in  the  chief  cities  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  in  some 
of  the  mining  districts  of  Nevada  and  Idaho  ;  woman's  sym- 
pathy has  been  enlisted  in  behalf  of  her  own  sex,  has  provided 
for  the  stranger  a  house  of  refuge,  and  rescued  unwilling  cap- 


MISSION    TO    THE    CHINESE    IN    CALIFORNIA.  6 1 

tives  from  brutal  owners.  On  the  twentieth  anniversary  of 
the  founding  of  the  mission,  Dr,  Loomis,  in  grateful  remem- 
brance of  God's  mercies,  writes  :  *'  Some  of  the  tokens  that  He 
has  owned  these  labors,  may  be  found  in  such  consistent  lives 
and  triumphant  deaths  as  that  of  Mung  Man  ;  in  the  fact  that 
amongst  the  members  of  our  mission  church  and  those  who 
first  heard  the  Gospel  here,  are  such  men  as  Tam  Ching,  an 
able  assistant  and  eloquent  preacher ;  such  colporteurs  as  Sit 
Moon,  Shing  Chak,  Kum  Lum  in  Idaho,  Ah  For  in  Nevada, 
and  Chan  Chi  in  Canton.  With  few  interruptions,  your  mis- 
sionaries on  this  coast  and  at  this  port,  have  met  the  thousands 
of  people  which  each  year  arrive  just  from  the  darkness  of 
heathen  homes.  They  have  encountered  also  the  returning 
tide,  the  thousands  that  revisit  their  native  country,  and  as  far 
as  possible  have  endeavored  to  impart  to  them  some  knowledge 
of  the  true  God  and  of  the  way  of  life  through  the  merits  of 
His  Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

Since  these  words  of  cheer  were  written,  the  mission  has 
nearly  doubled  its  years,  and  the  writer  has  forever  laid  down 
his  pen,  but  his  work  abides.  The  mission  force  was  enlarged 
by  men  of  like  spirit  who  survive  him.  New  fields  have  been 
opened  and  occupied,  not  only  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  in  the 
mining  regions  beyond,  but  also  in  some  of  our  central  and 
eastern  cities,  and  many  of  our  American  churches  are  caring 
for  the  Mongolian  stranger  at  their  door. 

The  inflowing  tide  of  the  Chinese  has  been  stayed  as  the  re- 
sult of  restrictive  and  oppressive  laws,  and  hundreds  are  yearly 
leaving  the  country,  but,  says  a  late  annual  report,  "no  year 
has  yet  failed  to  bring  forward  marked  instances  in  which  the 
leaven  of  the  Gospel  has  accomplished  blessed  results,"  and 
these  results  are  seen  not  only  in  this  country,  but  even  "  in 
the  interior  towns  of  the  Canton  Province  are  found  traces  of 
the  good  work  done  on  our  Pacific  coast." 

January,  1892. 


IncideRls  in  tlie  Siam  oiid  loos  lyiisslons. 


The  religion  of  Siam  is  Buddhism,  and  the  government  is  an 
absolute  despotism.  Formerly  every  ofificial,  from  the  prime 
minister  through  all  the  lower  grades,  approached  his  sovereign 
crouching  on  knees  and  elbows,  so  that  the  flesh  of  the  latter 
became  callous  from  their  unnatural  use.  The  chief  end  of  a 
Buddhist  life  is  to  make  and  store  away  merit  for  an  after  ex- 
istence through  its  several  transmigrations.  The  king  accum- 
ulates it  by  daily  gilding  a  temple  or  an  idol,  and  the  people 
add  to  their  future  store  of  good  as  well  by  nursing  worthless 
quadrupeds  and  noxious  reptiles  as  by  observing  the  natural 
laws  of  morality.  The  first  commandment  of  the  Buddhist 
decalogue  is,  "from  the  meanest  insect  up  to  man  thou  shalt 
kill  no  animal  whatever."  The  temples  are  the  schools  of  the 
boys,  where  nine-tenths  of  them  are  taught  to  read  by  the 
priests,  white  more  than  nine-tenths  of  the  girls  remain  wholly 
untaught.  The  books  read  are  the  history  of  the  kingdom  and 
of  the  neighboring  provinces,  much  of  it  legendary.  Other 
than  this  there  is  little  but  obscene  plays  and  stories.  There 
is  nothing  in  native  Siamese  literature  to  inspire  manliness  of 
character  or  aspiration  for  a  better  life. 

The  capital  of  the  kingdom  is  Bangkok,  a  city  of  more  than 
half  a  million  souls,  among  whom  is  a  large  admixture  of 
Chinese.  The  Presbyterian  Board  established  a  mission  here 
in  1840,  which  was  suspended  at  the  end  of  three  years  by  the 
failure  of  health  and  return  to  the  United  States  of  the  first 
family  sent  out.  The  American  Baptists  and  the  American 
Board  both  occupied  the  field  before  this,  their  work  being 
mainly  among  the  Chinese.  The  lalter  withdrew  from  it  in 
1848,  transferring  their  property  to  the  American  Missionary 
Association,  with  which  also  their  two  missionaries  on  the 
ground — Dr.  D.  B.  Bradley  and  Rev.  J.  Caswell — connected 
themselves. 


INCIDENTS    IN    THE    SIAM    AND    LAOS    MISSIONS.  63 

In  1847  the  Presbyterian  Board  re  entered  Siam,  sending 
out  Rev.  Messrs.  S.  Mattoon  and  S.  S.  Bush  and  their  wives,  and 
S.  R.  House,  M.  D.  Property  was  needed  by  them  at  once 
for  their  dwellings,  but  all  negotiations  for  it  were  prevented 
by  the  government.  Punishment  even  to  death  was  threatened 
to  any  subject  disposed  to  sell  or  rent.  The  embarrassment 
arising  from  this  bitter  enmity  led  the  missionaries  at  length 
to  an  appeal  to  the  Board  for  authority  to  remove  to  another 
field,  or  for  such  other  advice  as  this  trying  situation  might 
suggest.  Letters  of  December,  1S50,  from  all  the  missionaries 
brought  news  of  increasing  hostility  on  the  part  of  the  king 
and  his  prime  minister.  Teachers  and  servants  employed  in 
the  mission  were  threatened  and  obliged  to  flee  or  conceal 
themselves. 

The  Board  deliberated  and  prayed  for  light  and  divine  guid- 
ance at  three  consecutive  meetings,  held  March  10,  17  and  24, 
1 85 1,  and  then  referred  the  question  back  to  the  missionaries 
themselves,  expressing  consent  to  their  removal,  if  it  should 
appear  to  be  expedient,  to  Penang,  Sarawak  or  China.  But 
prayer  had  been  heard  and  answered,  and  Providence  settled 
the  question  for  them.  Pending  these  deliberations,  the  king 
was  in  the  throes  of  a  disease  which  ended  his  cruel  reign  in 
April ;  and  when  the  advice  of  the  Board  reached  the  mission- 
aries, they  were  already  in  the  full  sunshine  of  royal  favor. 
The  new  king  was  their  friend,  and  thenceforth  every  facility 
was  afforded  for  prosecuting  their  missionary  work. 

Before  this  favorable  change,  Dr.  House,  by  his  medical 
skill,  had  shown  the  people  what  Christian  civilization  could 
accomplish  for  their  relief.  In  June,  1849,  the  cholera  burst 
like  a  whirlwind  upon  Bangkok,  carrying  off  in  a  single  month 
thirty  thousand  of  its  population.  All  the  local  doctors  fled 
from  their  patients.  As  evil  demons  were  supposed  to  have 
caused  the  pestilence,  to  ward  them  off  a  strand  of  cotton  yarn 
blessed  by  the  priests  was  tied  around  the  wrist  and  neck,  and 
a  cordon  of  cotton  cloth  was  looped  from  battlement  to  battle- 
ment around  the  walls  of  the  royal  palace,  one  mile  in  circum- 
ference.    During  this  time  and  the  Spring  following,  on  a  sec- 


64  INCIDENTS   IN    THE    SIAM    AND    LAOS   MISSIONS. 

end  visitation  of  the  scourge,  our  medical  missionary  treated, 
with  uniform  success,  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  cases.  Of 
thirty  boys  in  the  school,  some  with  urgent  symptoms,  not  one 
died. 

In  185 1  the  physician's  skill  was  again  engaged  to  arrest  an- 
other scourge  which  visited  the  capital.  The  small-pox  was 
carrying  off  its  victims  in  great  numbers,  and,  though  vaccin- 
ation had  been  introduced  at  an  earlier  date,  there  was  at  this 
time  no  preventive  matter  in  all  the  city.  At  this  juncture, 
one  of  the  ladies  of  the  mission  returned  from  a  health  visit 
to  Singapore  with  her  recently  vaccinated  child,  from  whose 
arm  the  preventive  virus  was  obtained  and  transferred  until  its 
saving  influence  was  widely  experienced.  Not  long  after  the 
little  child  was  taken  from  his  mother's  into  his  Saviour's  arms, 
bequeathing  a  Christian  infant's  boon  to  a  stricken  heathen 
city. 

The  new  king  who  came  to  the  throne  in  1851  had  learned 
the  English  language  and  cultivated  a  fondness  for  science, 
especially  astronomy,  for  which  he  was  largely  indebted  to  Mr. 
Casswell,  of  the  Missionary  Association,  on  whose  death  the 
grateful  monarch  bestovved  upon  his  widow  a  mamorial  gift  of 
fifteen  hundred  dollars. 

In  the  early  part  of  this  reign,  treaties  of  commerce  and 
amity  were  formed  with  the  United  States  and  some  of  the 
western  nations,  for  the  drafting  of  which,  and  for  interpret- 
ing and  advising  in  the  iaterest  of  Siam  and  the  other  contract- 
ing powers,  missionary  aid  was  indispensable.  In  furthering 
these  national  interests,  Mr.  Mattoon,  by  the  advice  of  his 
brethren  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Board,  for  some  years 
acted  as  United  States  consul.  Thus  immunity  was  secured 
to  missionaries  as  American  citizens  from  future  annoyance,  and 
the  way  was  open  for  itinerating  and  distributing  Christian 
literature  and  for  settling  in  any  part  of  the  kingdom. 

The  mission  having  now  secured  popular  favor  and  treaty 
protection,  schools  being  established,  the  word  of  God  circu- 
lated and  undergoing  revised  translations,  there  still  remained 
the   great   want — converts  to  Christ.     After  twelve   long  and 


INCIDENTS    IN    THE    SIAM    AND    LAOS   MISSIONS,  65 

anxious  years  of  waiting,  there  came  with  the  annual  report  of 
1859,  a  note  of  cheer.  One  convert,  Nai  Chune,  a  Siamese  in 
middle  life,  was  baptized.  Nine  years  later,  in  1868,  we  find 
this  native  a  sympathizing  Christian  helper  in  an  emergency 
which  is  without  a  parallel  in  missionary  experience. 

Dr.  House  was  on  a  visit  of  urgency  and  affection  to  Chieng 
Mai,  where  two  missionary  families  had  recently  settled,  and 
where  was  no  physician.  After  twenty-five  days'  tedious  boat- 
ing, he  mounted  his  elephant  at  Rahang.  For  twelve  days  he 
rode  in  the  howdah  through  the  forests  and  over  the  mountains, 
parched  with  the  heat  of  the  dry  season,  resting  only  at  night 
and  over  the  Sabbath,  until  within  three  days  of  his  destina- 
tion. For  a  change  and  rest  he  was  walking  in  front  of  the 
elephant,  when  the  brute,  with  madness  in  his  eye,  attacked 
him  with  his  trunk,  throwing  him  against  a  tree,  and  tearing 
into  his  body  with  his  tusk.  Its  sharp  point  penetrated  his  ab- 
domen, making  a  rent  three  inches  wide  and  of  unknown  depth. 
His  attendants  soon  unpacked  his  case  of  instruments,  and 
with  his  own  hands  he  replaced  what  was  protruded,  and 
stitched  together  the  gaping  wound.  A  litter  was  constructed 
from  bamboos  growing  by  the  roadside,  on  which  he  was  borne 
five  hours  through  the  sultry  roads  to  the  nearest  village,  where 
for  fourteen  days,  under  an  open  shed,  in  extreme  weakness 
and  much  suffering,  he  awaited  the  result.  The  only  Christian 
friend  that  could  come  to  him  from  Chieng  Mai  was  Nai  Chune, 
who  was  temporarily  there,  and  who  came  and  ministered  to 
him  and  proved  a  brother  indeed.  Fever  supervened  ;  and 
after  two  weeks'  detention,  a  litter  and  a  boat  conveyed  him  to 
his  destination,  where  for  a  month  longer  he  was  confined  to 
his  room,  receiving  sympathy  and  kindness  in  a  Christian 
home. 

Additions  to  this  one  nucleus  of  a  native  church  were  slow 
in  forming.  In  1861,  Petchaburi  was  occupied  by  Messrs.  Mc- 
Farland  and  McGilvary,  and  two  years  later  a  church  was 
there  organized  and  three  baptisms  reported. 

Some  natives  of  Laos,  a  country  bordering  on  the  north  of 
Siam  and  tributary  to  it,  occupied  villages  in  the  neighborhood 


66  INCIDENTS    IN    THE    SIAM    AND    LAOS    MISSIONS 

of  Petchaburi,  in  whom  the  mission  became  interested.  In 
1863,  Messrs.  McGilvary  and  Wilson  made  a  visit  to  their 
country  and  to  its  capital,  Chieng  Mai,  which  led  them  to  oc- 
cupy this  distant  post  in  1867.  This  was  twenty  years  after 
the  Siam  mission  was  re-established. 

The  mission  at  Chieng  Mai  was  encouraging  from  the  be- 
ginning. No  missionary  had  preceded  those  who  now  entered 
the  field,  and  Christianity  was  wholly  unknown.  The  Laos 
people  had  no  books  in  their  spoken  dialect,  their  only  written 
language  being  Siamese.  But  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  was 
blessed  in  the  early  conversion  of  some  who  publicly  professed 
Christ  in  baptism.  Persecution  and  martyrdom  quickly  fol- 
lowed. The  two  earliest  converts  were  cruelly  massacred  by 
their  Buddhist  king,  and  to  the  last  witnessed  a  good  confes- 
sion. Others  were  sought  after  for  the  same  revengeful  pur- 
pose, but  escaped  by  flight  and  concealment.  This  was  base 
treachery,  for  the  Laos  king,  meeting  these  missionaries  at 
Bangkok  when  on  a  visit  there,  had  invited  them  to  his  coun- 
try, had  welcomed  them  on  arrival,  and  given  them  land  for 
building  and  a  permanent  settlement.  But  when  some  of  his 
people  received  the  Gospel  and  Buddhism  was  renounced,  his 
wrath  knew  no  bounds,  and  even  the  mission  families  were  ia 
peril.  The  missionaries,  regarding  their  work  as  virtually  sus- 
pended, sought  relief  from  the  government  at  Bangkok,  The 
king  of  Siam,  their  friend  and  protector,  had  just  died,  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  son,  a  youth  of  sixteen  years.  The  regent 
dispatched  a  government  ofhcer,  accompanied  by  two  mission- 
aries anxious  for  the  fate  of  their  brethren,  to  Chieng  Mai 
with  a  royal  order  to  allow  the  missionaries  settled  there  to 
remain  undisturbed,  or,  if  they  wished  to  leave,  to  provide  a 
safe  conduct  by  the  way.  This  order  was  not  all  that  the  mis- 
sionaries had  hoped  for,  as  it  afforded  no  protection  to  native 
converts,  and  was  so  interpreted  by  the  enemy,  who  continued 
to  breathe  out  threats  against  such. 

The  missionaries  were  not  anxious  for  themselves,  but  for 
the  ark  of  God  which  they  had  borne  into  this  wilderness,  and 
on  which  the  shekinah  rested,  and  for  this  they  prayed.    Their 


INCIDENTS    IN    THE    SIAM    AND    LAOS    MISSIONS.  67 

deliverance  came  in  a  way  not  expected  ;  as  was  the  case  with 
the  old  king  of  Siani  who  obstructed  a  new  missioa  among  his 
people,  so  it  happened  to  the  king  of  the  Laos.  A  fatal  dis- 
ease seized  him,  and  at  his  death  all  hindrance  to  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  Gospel  was  for  the  time  removed.  Some  years 
later  his  successor  began  a  similar  course  of  persecution,  when 
another  appeal  for  redress  was  made  to  the  Siamese  govern- 
ment. Then  the  young  king  of  Siam,  whose  authority  was 
supreme  in  the  Laos  provinces,  adopting  the  liberal  policy 
inherited  from  his  father,  issued  a  proclamation  of  free  tolera- 
tion in  its  fullest  extent,  even  exempting  native  Christians 
from  unnecessary  Sabbath  labor.  This  monarch  has  moreover 
publicly  thanked  missionaries  "for  the  many  benefits  his  coun- 
try has  received  from  their  labors  in  the  past,"  and  together 
with  the  queen  and  his  prime  minister  has  enconraged  their 
educational  and  hospital  work  by  the  bestowment  of  liberal 
gifts  in  money  ;  and  all  this  while  Buddhism  controls  the  re- 
ligion and  morals  of  his  court.  Most  truly  "the  king's  heart 
is  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord." 

If  we  turn  now  from  the  historical  record  of  God's  provi- 
dence in  the  Siam  and  Laos  missions  to  the  statistics  of  His 
grace,  we  find  abundant  cause  for  thanksgiving.  As  we  have 
seen,  the  first  twelve  years  of  missionary  labor  and  sacrifice 
were  rewarded  with  one  convert.  In  1867,  at  the  end  of  twenty 
years,  the  roll  of  church  members  numbered  25.  Ten  years 
later,  in  1877,  it  numbered  123.  After  another  decade,  in  1887, 
it  reached  676,  and  four  years  later  the  aggregate  was  1,411. 
Unfriendly  criticism  of  foreign  missions  may  see  in  these  sta- 
tistics an  answer  to  her  charge  that  converts  cannot  overtake 
heathenism  by  reason  of  the  greater  increase  of  population. 
But  the  arithmetic  of  grace  finds  in  this  rapidly-growing  per- 
centage of  conversions  in  decades  of  years  the  triumph  of 
Christianity  at  no  far  distant  future,  which  is  verified  by  the 
national  history  of  Europe. 

But  aside  from  the  statistics  of  numbers,  there  is  growth  in 
other  directions,  for  which  there  is  no  arithmetic  or  measuring 
rod.     Who  can  measure  the  influence   upon   a  heathen  com- 


68  INCIDENTS    IN    THE    SIAM    AND    LAOS   MISSIONS. 

muriity  of  a  twenty  years'  settlement  among  them  of  such  men 
as  Drs.  McGilvary  and  Wilson  at  Chieng  Mai,  or  of  fourteen 
hundred  and  more  converts,  many  of  them  living  witnesses  for 
Christ  to  their  benighted  neighbors,  or  of  the  dissemination  in 
their  own  language  of  the  word  of  life  ?  This  uplifting  pro- 
cess is  going  on  unobserved  day  by  day,  but  at  longer  periods 
clearly  marked,  and  from  a  missionary's  standpoint  it  is  the 
breaking  of  the  morning.  To  the  Presbyterian  Church  this 
double-leafed  door  in  Siam  and  Laos,  now  officially  thrown 
wide  open,  shows  their  peculiar  claims  for  enlarged  occupancy. 
"  The  withdrawal  of  all  other  boards  from  the  Siamese  portion 
of  the  field  throws  upon  the  Presbyterian  Church  a  solemn  re- 
sponsibility." May  this  review  of  the  sacrifices  and  deliver- 
ances of  the  past  emphasize  this  responsibility. 


IijGiileiils  ill  tlie  Japoii  ^imi 


On  the  ninth  day  of  January,  18515;  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  For/ign  Missions,  on  motion  of 
Dr.  James  W.  Alexander,  resolved  to  take  measures  to  estab- 
lish a  mission  in  Japan.  At  the  same  meeting  a  letter  was  read 
from  Dr.  Wells  Williams  to  Talbot  Olyphant,  recommending 
such  action  ;  also  one  from  James  D.  Hepburn,  M.  D.,  offering 
himself  and  wife  as  missionaries  for  that  field,  who  were  then 
accepted  and  appointed.  Dr.  Hepburn's  acquaintance  with 
the  Chinese  language,  acquired  during  six  years  missionary 
labor  among  that  people,  and  which  the  state  of  his  wife's 
health  obliged  him  to  leave,  was  one  among  his  other  qualifi- 
cations for  this  pioneer  work. 

Dr.  Hepburn  arrived  in  Kanazawa  in  October,  1859,  and 
rented,  by  permission  of  the  authorities,  a  temple  with  the 
priest's  house  adjoining,  which  house  he  sub-let  to  Rev.  C.  Q. 
S.  Brown,  missionary  of  the  Reformed  Church,  who  arrived 
out  about  the  same  time.  Turning  the  idols  out  of  the  temple 
he  partitioned  it  off  into  convenient  rooms,  converting  it  into 
a  comfortable  residence,  where  he  lived  over  two  years,  when 
for  greater  personal  security  he  moved  across  the  bay  and 
bought  land  and  built  a  house  in  Yokohama,  the  property  of 
the  Board. 

The  treaty  which  Commodore  Perry  secured  from  the  Jap- 
anese authorities  provided  simply  for  amity  between  their 
country  and  the  United  States,  for  the  privilege  of  vessels  in 
distress  putting  into  the  two  ports  of  Samona  and  Hakodadi 
for  repairs  and  supplies,  also  for  consular  residence  in  the 
former,  and  a  limited  trading  under  government  supervision. 
Commodore  Perry  entered  the  Bay  of  Yeddo  as  the  representa- 
tive of  a  Christian  nation,  and  on  a  Sabbath  morning,  with  an 
open  Bible  upon  our  national  flag  spread  out  upon  his  capstan, 


70  INCIDENTS    IN    THE    JAPAN    MISSIONS. 

the  officers  and  crew  of  his  squadron  united  in  singing  the 
one  hundredth  Psalm,  in  which  "  all  nations  are  exhorted  to 
praise  God."  "  This,"  says  Dr.  Oilman,  Secretary  of  the 
American  Bible  Society,  "  was  the  beginning  of  influence 
brought  to  bear  upon  Japan  that  opened  the  way  for  Christian 
missions." 

Following  this  treaty  was  the  one  of  1858,  secured  by  Town- 
send  Harris,  consul-general  of  the  United  States,  after  two 
years'  quiet  negotiation,  the  most  important  and  difficult  con- 
cession being  the  toleration  of  Christianity. 

The  Jesuit  missions  of  two  hundred  and  thirty  years  before 
had  been  stamped  out,  as  was  supposed,  by  the  massacre  of 
tens  of  thousands  of  their  devotees,  the  remembrance  of  which 
was  perpetuated  through  subsequent  generations  by  the  yearly 
ceremony  of  trampling  upon  the  cross.  The  Secretary  of 
State,  Mr.  Marcy,  had  instructed  the  consul-general  "to  do  his 
best  by  all  judicious  measures  and  kind  influence  to  obtain  full 
toleration  of  the  Christian  religion  and  protection  of  all  mission- 
aries who  should  go  there  to  propagate  it."  Mr.  Harris  was  in  full 
sympathy  with  these  instructions,  and  succeeded  in  convincing 
the  Japanese  negotiators  that  the  Jesuit  system  which  interfered 
with  State  affairs  as  formerly  practiced  was  not  the  Christianity 
he  represented.  Success  having  crowned  his  efforts,  on  the  first 
Sabbath  of  August,  1858,  he  invited  the  naval  officers  and  resi- 
dent foreigners  to  assemble  for  worship  at  the  consular  resi- 
dence, formerly  an  idol  temple,  which  was  the  first  Christian 
service  publicly  held  oxv  shore  in  Japan  for  more  than  two  cen- 
turies. It  was  an  appropriate  expression  of  gratitude  to  God 
for  further  opening  the  way  for  Christian  missions. 

A  fitter  man  than  Dr.  Hepburn  for  the  peculiar  service 
required  in  this  new  field  could  not  have  been  found.  Conse- 
crated to  the  mission  cause  in  early  manhood,  with  six  years' 
experience  among  Chinese,  skillful  and  successful  in  profes- 
sional practice,  with  a  quiet  manner  and  unfaltering  faith,  and 
with  a  companion  of  like  spirit,  he  entered  upon  this  field  as 
the  sower  of  the  first  handful  of  Gospel  seed,  and  remains  there 
still   to   aid   in   gathering  its  wonderful  harvest.     Very  little 


INCIDENTS   IN    THE   JAPAN    MISSIONS.  7 1 

could  be  done  for  a  time  in  the  way  of  direct  missionary  work. 
A  new  language  was  to  be  learned,  and  suspicions  and  jeal- 
ousies overcome  by  deeds  of  kindness  and  service  such  as  the 
good  physician  knows  how  to  render.  Months  and  years  were 
required  to  win  his  way  into  public  confidence.  From  the  first 
a  watch  was  set  upon  his  every  movement.  Of  his  two  men 
servants,  one,  the  most  useful,  was  known  by  him  to  be  a  gov- 
ernment spy,  and  everything  done  in  his  house  was  reported. 
But  there  was  no  effort  at  concealment,  and  this  openness  and 
frankness  were  his  safeguard.  On  one  occasion  after  his  rented 
temple  had  been  cleansed  of  its  idols  and  rooms  fitted  for  oc- 
cupancy, while  unpacking  and  arranging  his  goods,  he  received 
a  visit  from  the  official,  who  made  a  demand  for  his  Chinese 
books,  which  he  refused  to  deliver  up,  and  would  have  ap- 
pealed to  the  United  States  consul,  but  the  demand  was  not 
pressed.  While  making  their  inspection,  a  picture  of  the  cru- 
cifixion was  found,  which  some  friend  in  New  York  had  sent 
Mrs.  Hepburn.  This  discovery  was  thought  at  first  a  mishap, 
but  instead  of  confiscating  the  contraband  picture,  to  the  sur- 
prise of  its  owners,  the  men  were  curious  to  know  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  two  thieves,  who  they  were,  etc.,  which  led  to  an 
explanation  of  the  whole  transaction  why  Jesus  was  crucified, 
what  brought  him  into  the  world,  and  why  Christians  wor- 
shiped him.  This  was  the  first  Christian  sermon  ever 
preached  by  an  American  missionary  to  a  Japanese  audience. 
It  will  be  understood  that  the  toleration  of  Christianity  as 
secured  by  treaty  for  foreigners  did  not  include  permission  to 
propagate  it  or  exempt  natives  from  the  death  penalty  for  pro- 
fessing it.  Hence  the  search  of  Chinese  books  and  the  system 
of  espionage  were  among  the  methods  used  in  its  restraint. 
"  The  opening  of  Japan,"  said  one  of  our  naval  officers  at  the 
time,  "  is  an  opening  where  Gospel  truth  may  enter  wedge- 
like." And  our  missionary  found  a  very  narrow  cleavage  for 
his  wedge,  and  great  caution  necessary  in  driving  it.  After 
two  years,  Dr.  Hepburn,  in  full  confidence  of  the  future,  ad- 
vised that  a  single  man  be  sent  out  to  join  him,  study  the  lan- 
guage and  be  prepared  for  aggressive  work  when   the  way 


72  INCIDENTS    IN    THE    JAPAN    MISSIONS. 

should  be  more  fully  open.  He  continued  to  minister  to  the 
physical  wants  of  all  classes,  opened  a  dispensary  for  the  poor 
which  official  suspicion  and  interference  led  him  after  a  time 
to  close,  made  successful  operations  in  surgery,  and  was  con- 
sulted in  difficult  cases  by  native  doctors  from  Yeddo.  While 
thus  engaged  and  co-operating  with  missionary  brethren  of 
other  societies  in  the  distribution  of  Chinese  Christian  books 
and  tracts  and  making  translations  into  the  native  language,  he 
was  also  preparing  his  Japanese  and  English  Dictionary,  which 
was  published  in  1867.  Discretion  in  present  methods,  noting 
encouraging  providences  and  looking  with  the  eye  of  faith  into 
a  hopeful  future,  eminently  characterized  this  pioneer  work. 
In  May,  1863,  after  three  and  a  half  years  thus  spent,  he 
gladly  welcomed  a  fellow  laborer  from  his  own  Board,  Rev. 
David  Thomson,  who  has  remained  such  until  now. 

The  Gospel  wedge  continued  to  be  driven  cautiously,  while 
outside  changes  were  helping  the  missionary  cause.  In  1868 
the  government  was  revolutionized,  and  the  Mikado,  or  spirit- 
ual ruler,  who  had  been  secluded  from  public  responsibilities 
for  centuries,  resumed  his  ancient  prerogatives,  and  with  his 
advent  came  some  relaxation  of  the  exclusive  policy  of  the 
Tycoon  and  his  feudal  associates  and  rivals.  But  as  yet 
Christianity  received  no  official  favor,  and  in  1870  Dr.  Hep- 
burn writes  that  "no  direct  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  Japan- 
ese assemblies  has,  as  far  as  I  know,  been  attempted  by  any 
missionary,"  The  exclusion  of  Christianity  was  a  fundamen- 
tal law  of  Japan,  and  the  national  hatred  of  it  found  expression 
even  in  private  contracts.  As  an  illustration  of  this,  in  the 
indenture  of  an  apprentice,  among  other  qualifications  for 
faithful  service,  he  is  described  "as  having  no  connection  with 
the  sect  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  contrary  to  law." 

The  two  forces  at  work  in  the  upheaval  of  society  were  the 
Gospel  and  the  English  language.  The  latter  early  received 
governmental  favor,  and  with  it  came  the  civilizing  agencies 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  Mr.  Thomson  for  a  time  found  full 
employment  in  teaching  English  in  a  government  school  at 
Yeddo.     The  ambition  to  learn   it  was  stimulated  by  acquisi- 


INCIDENTS    IN    THE    JAPAN    MISSIONS.  73 

tion,  and  no  longer  Chinese,  but  English,  became  the  classic 
of  the  nation.  The  study  of  American  institutions  received 
favor  from  the  higher  classes  and  help  from  the  government, 
and  many  of  their  brightest  youth  were  sent  for  instruction  to 
the  United  States,  and  entered  our  colleges  and  universities. 

Among  these  came  two  bearing  a  letter  from  Dr.  Hepburn 
to  the  Presbyterian  Mission  House,  who  had  expressed  a  prefer- 
ence for  Princeton  College.  They  brought  funds  to  meet  their 
expenses,  were  dressed  in  their  native  costume,  and  spoke  but 
a  few  words  of  English.  It  seemed  proper  that  I  should 
accompany  them  to  Princeton  and  see  that  responsibility  was 
assumed  by  the  authorities  there  for  their  care  and  education. 
President  McCosh  convened  the  faculty  to  meet  us  ;  and  upon 
my  statement  that  these  young  men  had  heard  in  their  own 
land  of  the  fame  of  Princeton  College,  had  expressed  a  prefer- 
ence for  it  above  the  institutions  to  which  their  comrades  had 
gone,  and  desired  to  place  themselves  under  its  government  and 
instruction,  the  president  gave  them  a  cordial  and  hearty  wel- 
come, and  expressed  the  wish  of  the  faculty  that  others  of  like 
mind  would  join  them.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  make 
suitable  arrangements  for  their  comfort  and  education  ;  and  as 
an  earnest  of  the  care  they  would  receive,  he  invited  us  to  his 
house,  and  while  at  tea  their  baggage  was  brought  in  from  the 
hotel,  and  for  a  time  they  were  his  guests.  I  left  for  my  home 
that  evening,  full  of  gratitude  to  the  generous  hearted  presi- 
dent, who  had  thus  relieved  me  of  a  delicate  and  responsible 
charge. 

With  the  advent  of  Japanese  youth  into  the  United  States 
there  was  a  simultaneous  inflow  of  missionaries  into  Japan.  In 
1873  the  edict  against  Christianity  was  taken  down,  and  in  1877 
the  first  ordination  to  the  gospel  ministry  took  place.  In  x88o 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States  received  a  delegate  from  the  "  Union  Church  of  Christ 
in  Japan,"  recognizing  it  as  a  corresponding  foreign  body  ;  and 
the  same  Assembly  dissolved  its  own  Presbytery  of  Japan,  its 
constituent  members  being  enrolled  in  that  foreign  body. 

The  spirit   of  Japanese  Christianity  runs  strongly   in  the 


74  INCIDENTS    IN    THE    JAPAN    MISSIONS. 

direction  of  separation  from  the  mother  churches  and  for  a 
united  sisterhood,  and  the  prophecy  may  yet  be  verified  that 
even  those  mother  churches  that  differ  widely  in  polity  and 
creed  may  yet  find  their  offspring  in  Japan  merged  in  the  one 
National  Union  Church  of  Christ. 
June,   1889. 


lilGldents  of  Missions  in  Western  Hiricii. 


The  most  conspicuous  character  in  the  opening  history  of 
American  foreign  missions,  Samuel  John  Mills,  lost  his  life 
while  seeking  the  amelioration  of  the  Negro  race.  He  was 
buried  at  sea  April  15,  1818,  when  on  a  home-bound  voyage 
from  an  exploring  expedition  on  the  African  coast  with  the 
view  of  there  planting  a  colony  of  American  freedmen.  His 
biographer,  Dr,  Gardiner  Spring,  sings  his  requiem  in  strains  of 
more  than  poetic  melody.  "Thus,  in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  his 
age,  did  this  beloved  man  close  his  life  of  distinguished  useful- 
ness and  leave  Africa  and  the  world  to  mourn.  No  monumental 
marble  records  his  worth.  No  fragrant  dews  descend  upon 
his  tomb.  His  dust  sleeps  unseen  amid  the  pearls  and  corals 
of  the  ocean,  and  long  shall  his  name  swell  upon  the  breeze 
and  be  echoed  from  the  wave." 

The  Presbyterian  Board  has  two  missions  on  the  west  coast 
of  Africa — the  Liberia  and  the  Gaboon  and  Corisco.  The  for- 
mer is  ecclesiastically  connected  with  the  Synod  of  Pennsyl- 
vania as  the  West  African  Presbytery,  and  the  latter  with  the 
Synod  of  New  Jersey  as  the  Corisco  Presbytery.  The  West- 
ern Foreign  Missionary  Society  in  1833  sent  Rev.  J.  B.  Pinney 
as  the  pioneer  of  the  Liberia  mission,  which  is  within  the  na- 
tional boundaries  of  the  Liberia  republic,  and  embraces  in  its 
scope  not  only  colonists  and  their  descendants,  but  subject  na- 
tive and  neighboring  tribes.  The  Gaboon  and  Corisco  mis- 
sion is  so  called  from  the  union  of  two  distinct  missions  retain- 
ing their  respective  names.  The  Gaboon  was  transferred  from 
the  American  Board  in  1870,  whose  pioneer  missionary,  Rev. 
J.  Leighton  Wilson,  first  settled  at  Cape  Palmos  in  1834,  and 
thence,  with  his  associates,  removed  to  the  Gaboon  river  in 
1842.     The  Corisco  mission  was  planted   in    1850  by  mission- 


76  INCIDENTS    OF    MISSIONS    IN    WESTERN    AFRICA. 

aries  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  on  Corisco  Island,  lying  twenty 
miles  from  the  mainland  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Ga- 
boon. This  united  mission  has  for  its  present  and  prospective 
field  of  operations  the  valley  of  the  Congo,  extending  eastward 
from  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  with  adjacent  islands  above  and 
below  the  equator. 

The  death  rate  of  missionaries  in  Africa  is  greater  than  that 
of  any  field,  and  yet  I  do  not  know  that  this  has  deterred  any 
candidates  from  entering  it  who,  enjoying  normal  health,  de- 
sired to  go  where  their  services  at  the  time  were  most  needed, 
nor  am  I  aware  that  business  agencies  on  the  coast,  employing 
together  a  much  larger  number  of  white  men  than  the  aggre- 
gate force  of  missionaries,  are  at  a  loss  for  applicants  to  fill  all 
vacancies.  Africa  has  drawn  as  largely  upon  the  resources  of 
worldly  enterprise  as  any  other  country  in  the  world,  and  it 
would  be  strange  if  a  loving  obedience  to  our  Lord's  last 
command  should  be  held  in  check  by  an  unfriendly  climate  in 
which  such  worldly  enterprises  thrive.  It  should  be  consid- 
ered, moreover,  that  missionary  experience  has  led  to  sanitary 
precautions  and  remedies  for  the  better  security  of  human  life, 
and  also  that  malarial  coast  stations  furnish  no  criterion  of 
mortality  in  the  table  lands  beyond,  toward  which  all  mission 
enterprise  is  pushing. 

The  Liberia  mission  prior  to  1850,  when  my  connection 
with  the  Board  began,  had  its  full  share  of  losses  from  death 
and  the  return  home  of  its  members  with  impaired  health.  Its 
pioneer.  Dr.  Pinney,  had  been  constrained  reluctantly  to  enter 
the  service  of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  first  as  gov- 
ernor of  the  Liberia  colony  and  subsequently  and  for  many 
years  as  its  popular  general  agent.  In  that  year  the  mission 
consisted  of  four  colored  men,  two  of  whom  were  ministers, 
and  was  reinforced  with  Rev.  David  A.  Wilson  and  wife,  who 
joined  it  specially  to  superintend  the  Alexander  High  School, 
then  recently  established.  Mr.  Wilson  remained  in  the  field 
seven  years,  the  longest  term  of  service  there  of  any  white  mis- 
sionary of  the  Board,  when  he  was  compelled  by  failure  of  his 
wife's  health  to  return  permanently  to  the  United  States.     Dur. 


INCIDENTS   OF    MISSIONS   IN    WESTERN    AFRICA.  ^^ 

ing  his  last  two  years  he  had  as  an  associate  Rev.  Edwin  T. 
Williams,  who  also  left  two  years  later  and  settled  as  pastor  in 
Florida,  where  he  died  in  1866.  The  fruits  of  Mr.  Wilson's 
labors  are  thus  summarized  in  the  annual  report  of  the  Board 
of  1859  :  "Important  results  have  already  begun  to  flow  from 
this  institution,  the  Alexander  High  School.  Two  of  its  earli- 
est pupils  have  now  entered  the  ministry  and  promise  to  be 
useful  men  in  this  calling  ;  two  are  prosecuting  the  study  of 
medicine  in  this  country ;  two  others  are  actively  engaged  in 
teaching  in  Liberia,  and  several  others  are  filling  important 
offices  in  connection  with  the  government."  One  of  the  stu- 
dents thus  referred  to  was  a  commissioner  to  the  General  As- 
sembly of  1880,  held  at  Madison,  Wis.,  Rev.  Edward  W. 
Blyden,  of  West  Africa  Presbytery.  In  an  address  before  the 
Assembly,  he  made  grateful  mention  of  his  former  teacher, 
David  A.  Wilson,  who  was  sitting  before  him,  and  also  of  a 
fellow  commissioner.  Rev.  J.  P.  Knox,  of  Long  Island,  under 
whose  ministry  he  had  professed  Christ,  and  through  whose 
instrumentality  he  was,  in  his  young  manhood,  sent  out  as  a 
Liberia  colonist.  Dr.  Blyden  succeeded  Mr.  Wilson  by  ap- 
pointment of  the  Board  as  principal  of  the  Alexander  High 
School  until  his  acceptance  of  a  professorship  in  the  Liberia 
college.  He  has  held  distinguished  offices  under  his  govern- 
ment and  has  written  much  of  Africa,  one  of  his  latest  publi- 
cations being  a  discourse  before  the  American  Colonization 
Society  at  its  annual  meeting  in  Washington  in  1890,  when  he 
presented  the  Liberia  republic  as  an  inviting  field  for  the  emi- 
gration of  the  American  Negro  race. 

In  1859  the  Board  sent  to  this  mission  three  ordained  grad- 
uates of  the  Ashman  Institute,  now  Lincoln  University.  One 
died  within  six  years  and  one  a  few  months  earlier,  after  his 
return  to  the  United  States,  and  the  third  in  the  field  at  the 
end  of  ten  years.  No  other  graduate  from  that  institution  was 
obtained  until  1878,  when  Rev.  Darius  E.  Donnel  was  sent  out, 
and  died  six  months  after  his  arrival.  Rev.  Edward  Boeklen, 
a  German  member  of  New  York  Presbytery,  and  the  last  white 


78  INCIDENTS    OF    MISSIONS   IN    WESTERN    AFRICA. 

man  sent  to  Liberia,  died  there  after  two  years  of  service,  in 
1868. 

The  present  staff  of  laborers  consists  of  five  ordained  min- 
isters and  as  many  lay  teachers,  as  large  a  number  as  has 
occupied  the  Liberia  field  in  any  previous  year. 

The  Annual  Report  of  1888  makes  this  pertinent  inquiry  : 
*'  Why  should  not  the  Board  return  to  its  former  usage  of 
sending  white  missionaries  to  Liberia  ?  But  little  difference 
between  white  and  colored  laborers  there  as  to  health  is  shown 
by  the  statistics  of  over  thirty  years.  The  missionary  field 
from  the  coast  to  the  interior  is  now  partly  open.  It  is  wait- 
ing for  Gospel  laborers."  And  it  maybe  added  that  it  is  more 
open  now,  by  reason  of  national  complications,  than  is  the 
mission  near  the  equator.  The  special  need  is  the  more  ad- 
vanced education  of  young  Liberians  as  an  elevating  power  m 
the  State,  and  as  a  means  for  disseminating  the  Gospel  among 
the  native  tribes  within  and  beyond  the  limits  of  the  republic. 
After  the  lapse  of  thirty  years,  a  successor  of  David  A.  Wil- 
son, in  all  respects  his  equal,  is  greatly  needed. 

The  oft-repeated  bereavements  on  the  Liberia  coast  led  to 
the  inquiry  whether  a  more  healthy  location  could  not  be 
found  in  a  lower  latitude.  The  comparative  exemption  from 
fever  of  missionaries  of  the  American  Board  on  the  Gaboon 
river  was  a  strong  inducement  to  form  a  new  mission  near  the 
equator  ;  and,  after  consultation  with  the  brethren  of  that 
Board,  Corisco  Island  was  selected  and  occupied  by  Rev. 
James  L.  Mackey  and  Rev.  George  W.  Simpson  in  1850, 
who,  with  their  wives,  were  sent  out  the  preceding  year.  Be- 
fore entering  this  field,  Mrs.  Mackey  died,  though  not  from 
climatic  causes;  and  a  few  months  later — April,  185 1 — Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Simpson  were  lost  in  a  typhoon  at  sea.  The  respon- 
sibility of  founding  a  new  mission  and  giving  shape  to  its  fu- 
ture history  thus  devolved  upon  the  sole  survivor,  Mr.  Mackey, 
who  proved  himself  in  all  respects  equal  to  the  emergency.  In 
his  early  consecration  to  this  African  work  he  met  with  strong 
opposition  at  home.  Even  his  presbytery  would  not  give 
it  its  sanction.     He  thus  narrates  his  experience  with  that  body  : 


INCIDENTS    OF    MISSIONS    IN    WESTERN    AFRICA.  79 

"  One  member  asked  me,  *  Have  you  determined  to  throw  away 
your  life?  Go  to  Africa,  and  you  will  lay  your  bones  on  her 
sands  with  the  multitudes  who  have  gone  before  you,  and  who 
should  be  a  warning  to  you.'  Another  said,  '  Well,  I  admire 
your  spirit,  but  I  fancy  you  are  throwing  away  your  life,'  And 
such  was  the  almost  unanimous  expression  of  the  members." 

Mr.  Mackeymet  with  no  opposition  from  the  barbarous  peo- 
ple on  the  island.  On  the  contrary,  they  showed  him  no  little 
kindness,  and  gave  him  land,  and  assisted  in  constructing  his 
Evangasimba  Mission  House. 

Dr.  J.  Leighton  Wilson,  in  his  book  on  western  Africa,  illus- 
trates from  his  own  experience  the  native  respect  shown  white 
missionaries.  "During  my  nineteen  years'  residence  in  that 
country,"  he  says,  "I  have  traveled  many  thousand  miles  among 
these  people,  among  tribes  who  had  never  seen  a  white  man,  in 
times  of  peace  and  in  times  of  war,  at  their  homes  and  on  the 
way  to  shed  the  blood  of  their  fellow  men,  and  yet  I  never 
thought  it  necessary  to  furnish  myself  with  a  single  implement 
of  defense  or  had  just  cause  for  using  one.  I  have  passed 
through  the  largest  villages  alone  in  the  middle  of  the  night 
with  a  feeling  of  as  much  security  as  I  could  possibly  have  felt 
in  traveling  the  streets  of  any  city  of  these  United  States. 
During  the  whole  time  of  my  residence  in  that  country  I 
scarcely  remember  to  have  heard  a  single  syllable  from  the  lips 
of  one  of  these  people  which  could  in  any  sense  be  construed 
as  an  intentional  insult  to  myself ;  and  yet  they  are  heathen  in 
the  full  sense  of  the  word,  and  no  missionary  can  live  among 
them  without  finding  ample  cause  of  perplexity  and  annoy- 
ance." 

Forty  years  later  Miss  Isabella  Nassau  writes  from  her  home 
on  the  Ogove  river:  "In  lonely  places,  with  only  three  or  four 
trusted  Christian  natives,  surrounded  by  crowds  of  wild  people, 
neither  by  day  nor  by  night  have  I  feared,  though  doubtless 
there  was  at  times  reason  for  doing  so.  What  kind  womanli- 
ness some  of  these  women  have  shown  me  !  What  manly 
courtesy  and  hospitality  some  of  these  uncultivated  sons  of  the 
wilderness  !     No  wonder  that  I  feel  at  home  in  this  low,  dark, 


8o  INCIDENTS    OF    MISSIONS    IN    WESTERN    AFRICA. 

not  overclean  bamboo  hut.  But  I  love  their  souls.  I  long  to 
see  their  conversion." 

Mr.  Mackey's  first  business  was  to  acquire  the  language  of 
the  people  and  reduce  it  to  writing,  and  in  a  comparatively  short 
time  he  produced  the  Benga  grammer  and  primer.  Into  this 
language  we  have  now  over  fifty-two  hundred  printed  pages, 
including  a  large  portion  of  the  Scriptures.  His  knowledge  of 
medicine  and  its  practice  gave  him  an  influence  which  greatly 
weakened  that  of  the  native  doctors,  who  in  their  fetich  super- 
stitions sometimes  resorted  to  human  sacrifice.  The  remark- 
able fact  is  recorded  that  during  his  first  eight  years  on  the 
island  he  had  treated  over  one  hundred  cases  of  sickness  brought 
from  trading  vessels,  some  of  malignant  fever,  and  not  one  had 
died.  From  the  beginning  a  boys'  school  was  opened  ;  and 
when  the  mission  was  reinforced  by  a  lady  who  in  1852  became 
his  wife  and  by  Rev.  George  McQueen,  a  girls'  school  was 
added.  Soon  a  house  of  worship  was  built,  and  in  1856  a 
church  organized,  and  two  natives  were  received  as  members. 
At  the  same  date  twenty  boys  could  read  the  New  Testament  in 
English,  and  some  repeat  the  Shorter  Catechism  entire.  Four 
years  later,  or  ten  years  after  founding  the  mission,  fifty-seven 
adults  had  been  baptized,  of  whom  fifteen  were  females. 

While  thus  prosecuting  his  work,  aided  by  brethren  who  from 
time  to  time  had  joined  him,  Mr.  Mackey,  in  the  Summer  of 
1858,  was  visited  by  officers  of  a  Spanish  war  vessel  bearing  a 
proclamation  from  the  governor  of  Fernando  Po,  that  no  other 
than  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  should  be  publicly  taught  on 
the  island.  Instructions  were  asked  from  the  Board,  and  the 
answer  was  returned  that  the  missionaries  remain  at  their  post 
and  prosecute  their  accustomed  work,  unless  compelled  to 
leave  by  violence.  A  memorial  to  the  United  States  govern- 
ment was  prepared  and  laid  before  the  Secretary  of  State,  Gen. 
Lewis  Cass,  by  Dr.  J.  Leighton  Wilson,  Secretary  of  the  Board. 
An  investigation  was  at  once  made  of  this  Spanish  claim  over 
Corisco,  and  was  found  to  be  without  foundation,  and  in  this 
view  the  Minister  of  Spain  at  Washington  seems  to  have  con- 
curred.     The   proclamation    was  virtually  withdrawn  or  not 


INCIDENTS   OF    MISSIONS    IN    WESTERN    AFRICA.  8l 

heard  of  afterwards,  and  the  newly-imported  priest  and  nuns 
left  the  island.  Some  five  years  ago  these  Spanish  claims  were 
revived,  chiefly,  as  is  supposed,  against  the  pretensions  of 
France,  and  Romish  priests  are  again  on  Corisco. 

The  policy  of  these  two  governments  touching  the  work  of 
the  Mission  Board  differs  in  this  :  that,  whereas  Spain  prohib- 
its all  Christian  teaching  of  the  natives  except  in  connection 
with  the  rites  of  the  papal  Church,  France  allows  Protestant 
teaching  in  the  French  language,  but  prohibits  it  in  their  own 
vernacular,  American  missions  in  Africa  are  thus  hampered 
in  those  districts  that  fall  within  the  jurisdiction  of  these  two 
rival  powers.  Surely,  the  word  of  God  now  translated  in 
Mponwe  and  Benga  cannot  long  be  thus  bound. 

After  sixteen  years  of  conspicuous  service  in  the  field,  mak- 
ing in  the  meantime  three  or  four  visits  to  the  United  States, 
Mr.  Mackey  finally  returned  home  in  1866,  though  not  without 
hope  of  again  resuming  his  life  work.  We  met  as  members  of 
the  Synod  of  New  Jersey  in  October  of  that  year,  where  the 
policy  of  sending  white  missionaries  to  Africa  was  discussed 
and  which  he  strongly  advocated.  One  member  who  seemed  to 
compute  the  usefulness  of  human  life  by  the  number  of  its 
years,  illustrated  his  argument  for  colored  men  as  alone  adapted 
to  that  country  by  the  obviously  broken  health  of  his  mission- 
ary opponent.  Mr.  Mackey's  work  was  done,  and  though  his 
heart  was  in  Africa  to  the  last,  he  was  buried  in  his  native  soil 
the  follov/ing  Spring. 

Several  consecrated  men  and  women  became  in  succession 
the  associates  of  this  pioneer  missionary  to  Corisco.  I  have 
named  George  McQueen,  who  joined  him  in  1852  and  died  six 
years  later,  leaving  his  last  message  for  his  native  boys  :  "  I 
came  from  America  to  tell  you  of  these  things  of  God,"  and  to 
the  chief  of  the  district  saying  :  "  Remember  the  words  I  have 
told  you,  '/  am  going  home.'  "  Following  him,  in  1853,  was 
William  Clemens,  buried  nine  years  later  in  the  sea  over  which 
he  was  homeward  bound  to  recruit  impaired  health.  His  com- 
panion on  this  voyage,  Mr.  DeHeer,  says  of  him  :  "  He  exe- 
cuted  his  office  in   season  and  out    of   season,  by  night  and 


82  IN'CIDENTS    OF    MISSIONS    IN    WESTERN    AFRICA. 

by  day,  on  the  land  and  on  the  sea,  the  mountain  top  and 
the  valley,  the  chapel  as  well  as  the  poor  African  hut." 
Thomas  T.  Ogden,  after  scarcely  three  years  of  service,  fell  at 
his  post  May  12,  1861.  His  last  words  were  :  "Who will  go — 
will  you  go — who  will  go  to  preach  on  the  mainland  ?"  George 
PauU  reached  Corisco  in  May,  1864,  and  died  the  same  month 
the  next  year  ;  of  whom  his  home  Presbytery  says  :  "Having  a 
spirit  akin  to  that  of  a  Brainard,  an  Eliot,  a  Schwartz — akin  to 
the  spirit  of  him  who  said,  'the  zeal  of  thine  house  hath  eaten 
me  up ' — a  zeal  for  the  salvation  of  Africa,  which  prematurely 
and  almost  literally  consumed  the  vessel  in  which  it  burned." 
Solomon  Reutlinger  closed  three  years  of  active  service  in  1869, 
leaving  a  widow  who  then  became  the  devoted  companion  in 
labor  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  DeHeer  until  their  return  to  the  United 
States,  and  is  still  the  loving  companion  of  the  one  who  has  so 
recently  joined  her  in  widowhood.  To  these  might  properly  be 
added  the  names  of  other  missionary  ladies  who  counted  not 
their  lives  dear  unto  them,  and  whose  bodies  sleep  in  the  cem- 
etery at  Evangasemba. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  refer,  save  in  a  general 
way,  to  the  Gaboon  and  Corisco  mission  since  the  union  of 
1870,  nor  to  the  early  history  of  that  portion  of  it  which  was 
transferred  from  the  American  to  the  Presbyterian  Board,  which 
history  suggests  honored  names  in  the  Christian  Church — J. 
Leighton  Wilson,  Albert  Bushnell,  William  Walker  and  others. 
Before  this  union,  Mr.  DeHeer  and  Rev.  R.  Hamel  Nassau,  M. 
D.,  and  his  sister  Isabella  had  entered  the  Corisco  field — the  first 
named  recently  taken  to  his  reward  and  the  remaining  two  still 
sowing  and  reaping.  Mr,  DeHeer's  connection  with  the  Board 
extended  over  a  period  of  thirty-three  years.  Like  some  of  his 
brethren  before  him,  he  remained  too  long  in  Africa  to  regain 
impaired  health  by  a  visit  home.  His  station  for  some  years 
was  on  the  mainland  at  Benita  as  its  centre,  with  eight  out  sta- 
tions along  a  line  of  fifty  miles,  having  access  to  five  different 
tribes,  all  of  whom  received  with  a  welcome  this  messenger  of 
Christ  and  his  message.  He  left  this  attractive  field  in  the  midst 
of  a  rich  harvesting,  thirty-two  adults  being  baptized  at  his  fare- 


INCIDENTS   OF    MISSIONS   IN    WESTERN    AFRICA.  83 

well  communion  season.  He  died  at  Clifton  Springs  October 
20,  1889,  and  the  secretary,  who  wrote  his  brief  memorial,  truly 
and  affectionately  speaks  of  him  "  as  one  of  the  most  successful 
missionaries  of  the  Cross  on  the  Dark  Continent." 

Dr.  Nassau  entered  this  field  in  1861,  six  years  after  Mr.  De- 
Heer,  and  his  sister  in  1868.  Their  African  home  is  on  the 
Ogove  river,  some  two  hundred  miles  inland  from  the  ocean, 
where  they  are  prosecuting  their  blessed  work,  with  the  strange 
interference  of  the  French  authorities  hovering  over  them  and 
the  black  wing  of  cannibalism  flapping  near  them.  But  it 
is  through  such  personal  sacrifices  and  by  persistent  occupancy, 
with  a  base  of  supplies  and  lines  of  communication  open  to 
the  sea,  that  the  Church  may  look  for  further  advances  in  the 
near  future  into  the  interior  regions  of  the  Dark  Continent. 
There  dwell  the  myriads  of  Africa.  There,  amid  the  cruelties 
of  fetichism  and  slavery,  Satan  holds  undisputed  sway.  There 
bright  triumphs  of  divine  grace  are  to  be  won.     1890. 


Ipdenls  in  Iiidicii  Missions  iii  Konsos  mi  flebroskd. 


Preparatory  to  Kansas  and  Nebraska  being  organized  into 
territories  by  the  Act  of  Congress  of  May,  1854,  and  the 
country  within  their  bounds  open  to  white  settlement,  treaties 
were  made  with  several  of  the  Indian  tribes,  pre-occupants  of 
the  soil,  in  which  their  possessory  rights  were  ceded  to  the 
United  States,  save  the  several  reservations  to  which  they  were 
to  be  removed  and  confined.  These  treaties  stipulated  for  the 
payment  of  annuities  according  to  population,  a  portion  of 
which,  with  the  consent  of  the  Indians,  was  set  apart  for  edu- 
cation and  the  purchase  of  the  implements  of  civilized  labor. 

The  commissioner  of  Indian  affairs  submitted  certain  meas- 
ures which  were  approved  by  President  Pierce,  and  which,  if 
carried  out,  it  was  believed  would  give  every  child  on  the  reser- 
vations an  English  education,  and  thus  prepare  the  coming 
generation  to  stand  on  equal  terms  in  every  respect  with  their 
white  neighbors.  The  most  important  of  these  measures  was 
the  establishment  of  manual  labor  boarding-schools,  to  be  con- 
ducted by  such  missionary  societies  as  were  willing  to  enter 
into  contracts  with  the  government,  at  stipulated  rates  for  each 
scholar,  and  which  were  to  receive  protection  and  encourage- 
ment from  government  agents.  The  essential  element  in  this 
plan  was  the  Christian  character  of  these  schools.  The  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior,  in  his  annual  report  of  1856,  sets  this  forth 
in  no  equivocal  terms.  "Above  all,"  he  says,  "should  Christ- 
ian instruction  be  introduced  and  sedulously  prosecuted  by 
teachers  devoted  to  the  cause  in  the  true  spirit  of  their  divine 
mission.  Without  this,  all  the  subordinate  means  will  be  in 
vain,  and  the  great  duty  which  humanity  imposes  on  us  to 
rescue  this  unhappy  race  from  entire  degeneration  and  speedy 
extinction  will  be  but  a  delusive  dream  of  impracticable  phil- 
anthropy. As  a  race,  in  mental  and  moral  capacity,  they  are 
inferior  to  no  other." 


INDIAN    MISSIONS   IN    KANSAS   AND    NEBRASKA.  85 

The  Presbyterian  Board  had  for  some  years  been  conducting 
missions  among  three  of  these  tribes,  viz.,  the  lowas,  Sacs  and 
Omahas,  and  gladly  entered  into  contracts  with  the  government 
to  carry  out  the  avowed  policy  of  both  in  respect  to  these,  and 
including  with  them  also  the  Ottoes  and  Kickapoos. 

By  the  terms  of  these  contracts,  three  new  buildings,  each 
adapted  for  from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  children  of  both 
sexes,  were  to  be  erected  by  the  Board  on  the  reservations. 
The  lowas  and  Sacs  had  already  sufficient  accommodation  in 
the  mission  house  built  for  them  jointly  ten  years  before.  The 
Omahas  also  had  their  mission  house  at  Bellevue  ;  but  as  their 
reservation  was  seventy-five  miles  further  north,  another  was 
needed,  being  one  of  the  three  new  buildings  required. 

The  erection  of  these  manual  labor  boarding-schools,  with 
the  appliances  and  outfits,  in  an  unsettled  country,  where 
labor  was  high  and  mechanical  skill  difficult  to  obtain,  where 
lumber  had  to  be  drawn  long  distances  by  ox  teams,  and 
where  doors  and  sashes  and  shingles  and  supplies  generally 
had  to  be  purchased  in  St.  Louis,  Cincinnati  and  New  York, 
involved  an  amount  of  detail  and  anxiety  by  the  executive 
officers  and  the  missionaries  on  the  ground  superintending  the 
work  which  cannot  now  be  appreciated.  The  missionaries  re- 
ferred to  were  the  late  Rev.  S.  M.  Irvin,  of  the  Iowa,  and  Rev. 
William  Hamilton,  of  the  Omaha  mission.  The  heavy  expense 
incurred  was  met  in  part  by  advances  of  the  government  from 
the  Indian  funds  within  the  contracts,  but  mainly  by  the 
Board,  though  none  of  it  from  its  ordinary  receipts. 

By  the  provisions  of  the  Omaha  treat}--,  a  grant  of  four  con- 
tiguous quarter  sections  of  land,  embracing  the  mission  prem- 
ises at  Bellevue,  was  made  to  the  Board,  with  the  consent  of 
the  Indians  and  as  an  expression  of  gratitude  for  past  services 
rendered  them.  This  land  almost  immediately  acquired  a 
speculative  value,  Bellevue  being  the  first  seat  of  the  territorial 
government  of  Nebraska,  and  opposite  whose  bluffs  it  was  sup- 
posed the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  would  find  its  most  eligible 
Missouri  river  crossing.  Before  reasonable  expectations  from 
such  advantages  died  out  and  the  city  of  Omaha  rose  into 


86  INDIAN    MISSIONS    IN    KANSAS    AND    NEBRASKA. 

prominence  and  became  a  successful  rival  for  the  railroad 
bridge,  the  six  hundred  and  forty  acres  were  surveyed  into  city 
lots,  put  into  the  market,  and  a  sufficient  number  sold  to  cover 
the  expense  of  the  new  buildings  and  to  stock  them  with 
clothing  and  provisions. 

Teachers  also  were  engaged,  whose  salaries  and  traveling 
expenses  were  met  not  from  the  Indian  annuities,  but  from 
funds  furnished  by  the  churches,  as  in  the  case  of  other 
missionaries. 

Thus  the  Board's  equipment  was  complete  for  carrying  out 
the  beneficent  plans  of  Commissioner  Manypenny  and  Secre- 
tary McClelland  of  President  Pierce's  Cabinet.  Missionary 
teachers  were  on  the  ground,  with  abundant  supplies  for  the 
naked  boys  and  girls  in  the  wigwams,  anxiously  waiting  for 
their  coming  into  the  school,  and  using  what  power  they  pos- 
sessed to  induce  them  to  come.  But  the  children  were  kept 
at  home,  and  no  compulsory  inducement  by  the  government 
agent  or  the  department  at  Washington  was  applied  to  over- 
come native  indifference,  or,  rather,  native  prejudice,  fostered 
by  unprincipled  white  men. 

Another  administration  had  succeeded  the  one  that  proposed 
and  executed  the  contracts,  and  at  the  end  of  five  years,  in 
i860,  notice  was  given  the  Board  that  these  would  not  be  re- 
newed, except  in  the  case  of  the  Omahas,  and  that,  as  re- 
quested by  the  Indians,  their  educational  funds  would  be 
applied  to  day  schools  under  government  control. 

This  changed  policy  of  the  government  resulted  in  the  Iowa 
and  Sac  building  being  converted  for  a  time  into  an  Indian 
orphan  school  for  children  of  any  of  the  tribes,  and  supported 
exclusively  from  funds  of  the  Board,  and  in  the  abandonment 
of  the  Ottoe  and  Kickapoo  buildings,  which,  being  erected  on 
the  reservations,  were  lost  to  the  Board,  though  not  without 
long  and  fruitless  efforts  to  secure  its  equities  in  them. 

During  the  existence  of  the  contracts  with  the  government, 
it  was  my  duty  and  privilege  to  visit  these  Indian  missions  in 
company  with  the  late  Walter  Lowrie,  secretary  of  the  Board. 
We  were  both  members  of  the  General  Assembly  which  met  in 


INDIAN    MISSIONS    IN    KENSAS    AND    NEBRASKA.  87 

New  Orleans  on  the  first  Thursday  in  May,  1858.  On  the  last 
day  of  the  session,  Monday,  17th,  we  left  that  city  by  steamer, 
and  arrived  in  Cairo  Saturday  morning  and  in  St.  Louis  by  rail 
the  same  evening.  On  Monday  we  took  the  cars  for  Jefferson 
City,  and  that  evening  a  boat  for  Donaphan,  Kan.  The  next 
morning,  while  dressing,  Mr.  Lowrie  discovered  that  his  state- 
room had  been  entered  and  a  valuable  gold  watch  stolen  which 
had  served  him  faithfully  during  his  senatorial  and  official  career 
in  Washington.  The  unloading  war  materials  at  Fort  Leaven- 
worth for  the  army  then  on  its  march  to  subdue  the  Mormon 
rebellion  detained  us  one  day.  We  landed  at  Donaphan  Sat- 
urday morning,  and  in  the  afternoon  by  private  conveyance 
twenty  miles  further  came  to  the  Iowa  and  Sac  mission.  Here 
we  found  Rev.  S.  M.  Irvin  and  wife  in  charge,  as  they  had 
been  since  they  began  their  work  among  these  Indians  in  con- 
nection with  Rev.  William  Hamilton  and  wife  in  1837.  There 
were  but  thirty-seven  scholars  of  both  sexes  in  attendance, 
though  the  building  could  accommodate  from  eighty  to  one 
hundred,  and  there  were  other  children  of  these  tribes  of 
proper  age  sufficient  to  make  up  the  larger  number.  Those 
in  attendance  were  nearly  all  brought  into  the  school  before 
the  existing  contracts,  and  when  as  yet  there  were  no  public 
land  sales  to  attract  white  settlers.  Mr.  Lowrie  had  visited 
the  school  two  years  before  (in  1856),  and  his  account  of  it 
then  would  describe  it  now — "Here  one  would  see  young 
men  and  young  women  rescued  from  the  deep  degradation  of 
their  tribes,  civilized  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word,  numbers  of 
them  converted  Christians,  sitting  down  with  their  teachers  at 
the  table  of  the  Lord.  On  week-days  he  would  see  them  in 
their  school  or  engaged  in  their  work,  cheerful  and  contented, 
just  as  he  would  see  any  industrious  and  well-regulated  white 
family  in  any  part  of  our  wide  and  happy  country." 

Of  one  of  these  school  girls  an  interesting  account  was  pub- 
lished three  years  later.  Sophia  Roubete,  of  the  Sac  tribe,  was 
the  eldest  of  three  orphans,  whom  Mr.  Irvin  took,  on  the  death 
of  their  mother,  from  a  heathen  lodge  to  the  mission  house, 
carrying  the  youngest  in  his  arms.     Sophia  died  at  the  age  of 


88  INDIAN    MISSIONS   IN    KANSAS    AND    NEBRASKA. 

eighteen,  in  the  full  assurance  of  that  rest  of  which  Baxter 
wrote,  and  with  whose  writings  her  mind  was  stored. 

It  was  a  great  disappointment  to  find  that  children  were  not 
now  brought  into  the  school ;  but  the  parents  were  told  that 
their  annuities  were  all  needed  for  corn  and  blankets  and 
ponies,  and  that  education  could  do  them  no  good.  Then, 
too,  the  whiskey  trader  was  at  hand,  and  the  tribes  were  be- 
coming more  demoralized  than  before  the  country  v/as  open  to 
white  settlements.  It  was  bad  enough  in  those  earlier  days, 
when,  as  a  government  interpreter  told  Mr.  Hamilton,  five 
hundred  dollars'  worth  of  whiskey  could  be  bought  on  credit, 
and,  after  paying  for  it,  the  trader  would  clear  one  thousand 
dollars.  Now  combined  with  this  destructive  traffic  the  land 
speculator  covets  the  reservations,  would  drive  the  occupants 
to  the  wild  and  hostile  tribes  further  west,  and  ridicules  any  at- 
tempt to  improve  their  condition  or  educate  their  children. 

We  left  our  kind  friends,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Irvin,  both  of  whom 
have  since  gone  to  their  reward,  on  the  ist  of  June,  and  a  half 
day's  drive  in  their  two-horse  curtained  wagon  brought  us  to 
the  Kickapoo  reservation  and  mission  house.  The  same  adverse 
influences  existed  here  as  among  the  lowas  and  Sacs.  There 
were  teachers  and  provisions  and  clothing  in  abundant  supply, 
but  only  twelve  boys  and  no  girls.  We  remained  here  three 
days,  comforting  as  well  as  we  could  the  superintendent  and 
teachers,  negotiating  with  an  interpreter  to  aid  in  preaching 
services  for  the  Indians  and  endeavoring  to  sound  the  policy 
of  the  government  agent  in  respect  to  the  school,  a  most 
difficult  thing  to  do. 

An  intelligent  Pawnee  youth,  Henry  Mancrovier,  who  had 
accompanied  us  from  the  Iowa  Mission,  then  drove  us  seventy 
miles  further  to  the  Ottoe  reservation.  On  the  way  we  passed 
in  the  evening  United  States  troops  encamped  on  the  prairies, 
the  tents  stretching  in  long  and  regular  lines,  their  horses  and 
oxen  feeding  in  the  distance.  They  are  on  the  march  to  Salt 
Lake  to  subdue  the  rebellious  Mormons. 

The  Ottoe  Mission  was  seventy-five  miles  west  from  the  Mis- 
souri river,  a  few  rods  south  of  the  fortieth  parallel  of  latitude, 


INDIAN    MISSIONS   IN    KANSAS    AND    NEBRASKA.  89 

which  divides  the  States  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  It  stood 
on  a  rich  prairie,  with  running  water  near  at  hand,  and  with  wood- 
land views  in  every  direction.  The  mission  house,  a  large  three- 
story  building  of  concrete,  was  a  conspicuous  object  at  the  dis- 
tance of  several  miles. 

The  Rev.  H.  W.  Guthrie  and  wife  were  here  as  superintend- 
ents, and  Miss  Sarah  Conover  as  teacher  ;  also  Kirwan  Murray 
and  Rebecca,  his  wife,  Isaac  Coe  and  Margaret,  a  Pawnee,  as 
assistants,  all  graduates  of  the  Iowa  school.  We  found  en- 
gaged also  a  practical  farmer,  who  had  planted  twenty-five 
acres  in  corn  and  potatoes.  Thus  provided  with  teachers  and 
assistants  and  a  commodious  building,  forty  or  fifty  children 
could  be  accommodated,  but  not  one  was  present.  The  Ottoe 
encampment  was  six  miles  from  the  mission,  and  the  day  after 
our  arrival  we  made  a  visit  to  it,  sending  word  in  advance  of 
our  coming.  We  were  accompanied  by  the  superintendents 
and  assistants,  with  our  driver  Henry  to  act  as  interpreter,  and 
together  with  the  assistants  to  be  object  lessons  of  what  educa- 
tion can  do  for  Indian  youth. 

The  Ottoe  village  or  encampment  lay  along  the  edge  of  a 
grove,  near  a  running  stream — the  Blue — with  a  broad,  open 
prairie  in  front,  on  which  a  large  number  of  ponies  were  feed- 
ing. We  passed  two  or  three  burial  places,  and  saw  in  one  of 
the  picket  enclosures  two  mourning  women  by  the  remains  of 
children  who  had  died  the  day  before.  The  dead  are  buried 
in  a  sitting  posture,  as  these  cone-like  mounds  of  earth  indi- 
cate. 

The  tribe  numbered  800,  and  there  may  have  been  100  tents 
or  lodges.  Besides  the  ponies,  there  was  a  good  supply  of 
dogs,  of  which  the  Indians  are  very  fond,  treating  them  as  they 
do  their  children,  feeding  them  from  the  same  dish. 

Our  arrival  awakened  little  interest  in  the  camp ;  a  few  came 
around  us,  but  most  of  them  took  no  notice  of  the  strangers. 
Groups  of  men  and  boys  were  playing  marbles,  others  were 
stretched  full  length  on  the  grass  ;  some  were  grotesquely  orna- 
mented. One  young  Indian  was  passing  by  on  a  pony,  with 
his  head  shaved  and  his  nude  body  painted  throughout.     Not 


90  INDIAN    MISSIONS    IN    KANSAS    AND    NEBRASKA. 

a  man  or  boy  was  at  work.  Their  cornfield  was  a  little  dis- 
tance off,  but  it  was  tilled  by  the  Government  farmer,  and  for 
all  other  work,  when  not  on  their  hunt,  the  women  are  hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  and  bearers  of  burdens.  A 
number  were  shifting  tents,  and  one  woman  was  bent  under  a 
load  of  tent  poles  that  would  have  borne  down  a  strong  labor- 
ing man,  while  another  had  upon  her  back  all  the  utensils  of 
her  lodge  and  its  canvas  covering.  One  squaw  standing  near 
turned  up  to  me  her  infant's  face,  as  it  lay  in  its  blanket-bed 
on  her  shoulders,  and  said,  with  a  pleasant  smile,  "pappoose." 
One  cannot  but  admire  these  Indian  children,  with  their  bright, 
intelligent  faces  and  athletic  forms.  I  do  not  wonder  that  our 
missionary  teachers  among  other  tribes  become  so  much  at- 
tached to  them.  I  looked  into  some  of  the  tents  ;  nothing  was 
to  be  seen  but  a  little  fire  in  the  centre  and  a  few  cook- 
ing and  eating  utensils.  Men,  women  and  children,  with  yelp- 
ing dogs,  were  sitting  or  lying  down  on  deer  or  buffalo  skins. 
All  wore  blankets,  save  some  of  the  younger  children,  who  were 
naked.  We  were  disappointed  in  finding  most  of  the  chiefs 
away  on  a  friendly  visit  to  the  Pawnees  and  Kaws,  and  that  no 
general  council  could  be  held.  But  one  of  them  was  at  home, 
Big  Soldier,  who  came  up  and  saluted  us.  He  was  a  fine  speci- 
men of  the  red  man,  with  an  expression  of  intelligence  and  en- 
ergy. He  held  together  with  one  hand  his  blanket  thrown 
loosely  over  his  shoulders,  while  in  speaking  he  gesticulated 
with  the  other.  Several  times,  when  specially  animated,  his 
blanket  fell  partly  aside  and  disclosed  a  manly  form,  entirely 
naked,  save  a  bandage  of  dressed  skin  bound  round  his  loins, 
with  rings  and  beads  pendant  from  three  openings  slit  in  his 
ears. 

Mr.  Lowrie  shook  hands  with  the  chief  and  introduced  to 
him  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Guthrie  and  myself.  He  then,  through 
Henry,  as  interpreter,  addressed  hira  as  follows:  "I  have  come 
all  the  way  from  New  York  to  see  you  and  the  other  chiefs.  I 
am  sorry  to  find  so  many  are  absent,  but  I  am  glad  to  meet  you 
and  find  you  well.  I  wanted  to  see  how  the  mission  house  was 
getting  on  which  your  grandfather,  the  President,  has  built  for 


INDIAN    MISSIONS   IN    KANSAS    AND    NEBRASKA.  91 

you.  I  am  grieved  to  find  that  none  of  the  children  are  in  the 
school.  It  grieves  me  to  see  them  here  running  about  naked  or 
in  blankets  when  they  might  be  dressed  like  Kirwan  and  Henry, 
who  were  sent  to  school,  and,  as  you  see,  are  just  like  white 
men.  That  mission  house  was  built  for  you  that  your  children 
might  be  taught  to  work,  to  speak  English,  to  read  and  write. 
Your  grandfather  wants  you  to  be  equal  to  your  white  neigh- 
bors, to  stand  up  by  their  side  and  not  be  imposed  on.  These 
bright  children  that  I  see  about  me  may  all  become  white  men 
and  women.  These  good  friends  [pointing  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Guthrie]  have  come  here  from  a  great  distance  to  do  them 
good  and  to  do  you  good.  They  will  feed  and  clothe  and 
teach  your  children.  When  sick,  they  will  take  care  of  them. 
If  any  of  your  people  are  sick,  let  them  know  it  and  they  will 
come  and  give  them  medicine.  I  expect  soon  to  visit  your 
grandfather  at  Washington,  and  I  will  tell  him  that  I  have  been 
here  ;  and  what  do  you  think  he  will  say  when  he  hears  that 
none  of  these  boys  and  girls  are  yet  in  the  school  ?  I  think  he 
will  say  that  you  are  doing  very  wrong,  and  that  you  must 
have  no  more  annuities  until  your  children  are  sent  to  school 
and  kept  there." 

Big  Soldier  replied  that  the  chiefs  would  return  in  four  or 
five  days,  and  they  would  then  talk  over  what  had  been  said. 
He  believed  they  would  send  the  children  to  school.  They 
had  better  be  there  than  playing  about  here,  doing  nothing. 
Some  of  them  had  been  sent  and  had  run  away,  because  they 
did  not  like  to  stay.  He  thought  the  chiefs  would  make  them 
stay.  He  was  glad  they  were  to  have  medicine,  for  yesterday 
two  of  the  children  died.  He  then  changed  the  subject ;  said 
the  Pawnees  were  coming  to  make  war  on  them  and  take  their 
horses.  Mr.  Lowrie  told  him  that  the  Pawnees  would  not 
make  war  on  them  ;  their  father,  the  agent,  would  not  permit 
it,  and  again  referred  to  the  duty  of  the  chiefs  and  what  would 
be  expected  of  them  in  regard  to  their  children. 

We  then  shook  hands  with  Big  Soldier  and  a  number  of 
others  who  were  standing  about. 

It  was  a  sad  sight,  next  to  being  in  an  insane  retreat,  to    see 


92  INDIAN    MISSIONS    IN    KANSAS    AND    NEBRASKA. 

such  childishness  on  the  part  of  full-grown  men  and  women. 
It  was,  moreover,  unfortunate  that  the  chiefs  were  not  all 
present,  that  we  might,  by  possibility,  have  exacted  from  them 
in  solemn  council  the  pledge  that  the  children  should  at  once 
enter  the  school.  It  is  not  probable,  however,  that  any  such 
pledge  would  have  been  made,  or  if  made  would  have  been 
kept. 

Neither  the  chiefs  nor  the  government  agent  favored  the 
school,  and  no  inducement  could  draw  the  children  into  it. 
Later  in  the  season  these  Indians  returned  from  an  unsuccess- 
ful hunt,  became  embroiled  with  a  hostile  tribe,  lost  some  of 
their  braves,  and  in  the  winter  many  died  from  actual  want. 
The  end  of  the  Ottoe  Mission  was  near.  The  remnant  of  the 
tribe  leaving  their  Kansas  reservation  are  to  be  found,  I  know 
not  where. 

After  remaining  three  days  at  the  mission  Henry  drove^  us 
the  seventy-five  miles  to  the  Missouri  river,  most  of  the  way  in 
a  drenching  rain,  in  which  bridges  were  swept  away  and  fording 
was  dangerous.  We  arrived,  however,  safely  at  Nebraska  City, 
and  caught  a  passing  up-river  steamer  for  Bellevue,  leaving 
Henry  to  cross  into  the  State  of  Iowa  with  our  conveyance,  and 
so  return  to  the  Iowa  and  Sac  Mission.  At  Bellevue  we  tarried 
ten  days  as  the  guests  of  Rev.  William  Hamilton,  then  acting  pas- 
tor of  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  also  agent  of  the  board  in 
its  property  interests  there.  The  swollen  streams  made  a  land 
journey  to  Blackbird  Hills,  the  seat  of  the  Omaha  Mission,  im- 
practicable, and  after  long  waiting  for  a  boat  to  take  us  up 
that  contemplated  visit  was  abandoned.  Mr.  Hamilton  was  re- 
quested to  perform  this  service  later,  which  he  did,  and  subse- 
quently resumed  mission  work  among  the  Omahas  and  con- 
tinued in  it  until  his  death,  in  September  1891.  Mr.  Lowrie 
and  myself  took  a  descending  steamer  for  Jefferson  City, 
where  we  spent  a  Sabbath,  and  thence,  traveling  six  days,  all 
the  way  by  rail,  but  not  in  a  Pullman,  on  June  28  safely 
reached  our  homes. 


The  Wttldepioii  Endownjeiit  Fuiil 


The  treasurer  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  has  charged 
among  his  annual  payments  for  several  years  past  "interest  of 
the  Waldensian  Endowment  Fund,  $1,326."  This  at  the  rate 
of  six  per  cent,  is  the  income  from  $22,100,  held  in  trust  by 
the  Board,  and  invested  for  the  use  of  the  theological  seminary 
at  Florence,  Italy. 

The  General  Assembly  of  1853,  held  in  Philadelphia,  of 
which  I  was  a  member,  received  a  distinguished  guest  and 
delegate,  Rev.  Jean  P.  Revel,  from  the  ancient  Vaudois  church, 
which  five  years  before  emerged  from  its  Alpine  vales  where  it 
had  been  shut  up  for  centuries,  and  was  now  planting  itself  in 
some  of  the  prominent  towns  of  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia.  Dr. 
Revel  received  marked  attentions  from  the  Assembly.  Besides 
the  usual  time  given  for  his  reception  and  leave-taking,  two 
evenings  were  devoted  to  popular  addresses  from  distinguished 
members  expressive  of  sympathy  for  him  and  his  historic 
church. 

He  came  as  the  representative  and  moderator  of  a  synod 
formed  from  a  poor  community  of  23,000  souls,  asking  for  aid 
in  its  aggressive  missionary  work.  He  spoke  our  language 
imperfectly  but  not  unintelligibly,  and  in  tones  tender  and 
magnetic.  As  described  by  another,  "  He  was  a  man  of  rare 
good  sense,  indefatigable  zeal,  beautiful  simplicity  and  piety, 
full  of  gentleness  and  all  good  fruits."  His  farewell  address  to 
the  Assembly  closed  with  these  touching  words  :  "  I  pray  you 
remember  me  and  my  church.  We  meet  soon  in  another  place. 
Then  I  speak  to  you  not  in  broken  English  but  in  language  of 
immortals." 

Dr.  B.  M.  Palmer,  of  Charleston  Presbytery,  brought  in  a 
paper  responsive  to  this  appeal,  which  was  adopted  by  the  As- 
sembly and  is  published  in  the  appendix  of  its  minutes.     It 


94  THE    WALDENSIAN    ENDOWMENT    FUND. 

speaks  of  "this  ancient  and  venerable  church  as  standing  on 
the  same  platform  of  doctrine  and  order  with  ourselves,  being 
Calvinistic  in  the  one  and  Presbyterian  in  the  other."  Of  "its 
lineage  in  a  direct  historical  line  from  that  primitive  church 
which  for  aught  we  know  was  founded  by  apostolic  labors,  that 
through  the  long  night  of  a  thousand  years  kept  the  beacon 
light  of  truth  and  godliness  upon  her  Alpine  watch-towers,  and 
which  during  six  centuries  the  grace  and  power  of  God  have 
preserved  like  the  burning  bush  amid  the  fires  of  persecution 
and  now  in  the  first  lull  of  that  storm  which  has  so  long  beat- 
en upon  her  she  comes  forth  from  the  cleft  of  the  rock  and 
girds  herself  anew  to  the  propagation  of  Christianity."  In 
many  like  stirring  words  this  paper  transmits  an  appeal  to  the 
churches  for  substantial  aid,  especially  for  the  endowment  of  a 
theological  seminary  to  train  a  native  ministry  adapted  to  the 
great  work  of  Italian  evangelization.  It  was  understood  that 
our  church  should  raise  $20,000  as  a  permanent  investment  to 
be  held  by  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  Subscriptions  were 
at  once  opened  and  pledges  made,  but  the  required  amount 
was  not  completed  until  some  ten  years  later.  In  the  mean- 
while the  Board  from  its  general  funds  made  good  the  interest 
of  $20,000,  carrying  out  the  spirit  of  the  action  of  the  General 
Assembly,  and  both  before  and  since  the  completion  of  the 
endowment  has  made  annual  appropriations  for  the  missionary 
work  of  the  Waldensian  church. 

The  same  year  (1853)  that  Dr.  Revel  was  in  Philadelphia,  he 
also  visited  the  Assembly  that  met  at  Buffalo,  where  the  follow- 
ing resolution,  introduced  by  Dr.  Samuel  H.  Cox,  was  adopted  : 
"The  General  Assembly  having  heard  and  considered  the 
mission  to  this  country  of  Rev.  Jean  P.  Revel,  the  present 
moderator  of  the  Waldensian  Synod,  express  their  confidence 
and  cordial  esteem  toward  him  and  his  object,  and  recommend 
both  to  the  favor  of  the  churches  as  especially  worthy."  In 
accordance  with  this  action  contributions  were  made  for  the 
mission  work  of  the  synod  and  transmitted  mainly  through  the 
American  and  Foreign  Christian  Union,  of  which  Dr.  Baird 
was  secretary,  who  took  a  special  interest  in  the  Waldensian 


THE    WALDENSIAN     ENDOWMENT    FUND.  95 

cause,  and  generally  accompanied  Dr.  Revel  in  his  visits  to  the 

churches. 

In  i860,  when  Sardinia  extended  her  liberalizing  rule  over 
Tuscany  and  other  Italian  provinces,  the  theological  seminary 
was  removed  from  its  seat  in  Piedmont  to  Florence.  Here  her 
students  had  the  advantage  of  a  training  in  a  purer  Italian 
than  by  living  among  those  who  spoke  their  provincial  ver- 
nacular ;  and  it  was  also  a  central  point  for  aggressive  work. 
Here  also  Dr.  Revel  lived  as  one  of  its  professors  until  his 
death,  which  occurred  in  June,  1871— the  year  after  his  second 
visit  to  the  United  States,  where  he  received  a  like  cordial  re- 
ception as  in  1853. 

Not  long  after  the  death  of  Dr.  Revel,  Mr.  John  Aikin,  an 
elder  of  the  Fourth  Presbyterian  Church,  New  York,  visited 
Florence,  and  learning  that  an  inadequate  support  had  been 
left  his  widow,  collected  from  a  few  friends  $2,100,  the  interest 
of  which  was  to  be  used  to  supplement  her  narrow  income, 
and  at  her  death  the  amount  was  to  be  added  to  the  seminary 
fund.  Mr.  Aikin  paid  this  money  into  the  treasury  of  the 
Board.  The  interest  was  applied  as  intended  until  Madame 
Revel  joined  her  husband  "  among  the  immortals,"  since  which 
time  the  Waldensian  Endowment  fund,  as  already  stated,  has 
been  $22,100. 

In  1873  the  Waldensian  Synod  was  represented  in  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  at  Baltimore  by  Rev.  Matteo  Prochet,  now  pas- 
tor of  their  church  in  the  city  of  Rome  and  president  of  their 
national  committee  of  evangelization.  Mr.  Prochet  spoke  not 
in  broken  English,  as  did  his  distinguished  predecessor,  but  in 
eloquent  Anglo-Saxon,  and  in  his  address  repelled  in  earnest 
words  the  charge  that  his  church  was  French  and  not  Itahan. 
"Victor  Emmanuel  did  not  think  so,"  said  he,  "when  he  sum- 
moned his  subjects  to  fight  for  Italian  liberty  and  unity." 

In  1884  Dr.  Prochet  received  at  the  hands  of  his  sovereign, 
King  Umberto,  the  order  of  knighthood.  In  reference  to  this 
distinguished  honor  he  writes  to  the  Mission  House,  "  I  have 
been  knighted  by  a  descendant  of  those  dukes  of  Savoy  who 


96  THE    WALDENSIAN     ENDOWMENT    FUND. 

persecuted  so  fiercely  the  Waldenses  of  old,  and  in  the  city  of 
Rome,  where  another  Waldensian,  Pastor  Pascal,  was  burnt." 

Besides  these  two  official  heads  of  the  Waldensian  Synod, 
our  churches  and  ecclesiastical  bodies  have  received  as  dele- 
gates Rev.  George  Appia,  who  appeared  before  the  General 
Assemblies  of  1868;  Rev.  G.  David  Turino,  who  was  with  us 
in  1879  ^^<i  collected  about  $10,000  for  his  church  in  Milan; 
and  in  1880  Professor  Comba,  a  member  of  the  Pan-Presby- 
terian Conference  in  Philadelphia,  who  remained  over  for  a 
time  in  order  to  further  interest  our  people  in  the  Waldensian 
work.  Dr.  Prochet  made  a  second  visit  to  the  United  States 
in  1889,  and  represented  the  Waldensian  Synod  in  the  General 
Assembly  of  that  year. 

With  these  exceptions  of  representatives  from  their  synod, 
the  sole  agency  in  this  country  for  this  ancient  and  honored 
church  is  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  for 
thirty-five  years  annual  remittances  have  been  made  to  it  by 
the  treasurer. 

Of  late  years  negotiations  have  been  pending  with  the  Free 
Church  of  Italy  for  a  union  of  the  two  bodies.  No  conclusion 
has  been  reached,  the  chief  obstacle  being  a  want  of  agree- 
ment upon  a  title  or  name  for  the  united  church.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  such  a  union  may  be  formed  in  the  near  future, 
both  churches  being  feeble,  evangelical  and  aggressive. 

To  an  outsider,  viewing  both  organizations  as  God's  ap- 
proved instruments  for  the  evangelization  of  Italy,  it  seems 
that  church  unity  may  be  attained  at  too  great  a  sacrifice  in  the 
surrender  and  cancellation  by  one  of  them  of  its  gloriously  his- 
toric name.     1889. 


Address  before  tlie  General  Assemlily,  ol  Madison, 
Wisconsin,  181111. 


In  the  good  providence  of  God,  I  am  permitted  to  revisit  the 
Capital  of  Wisconsin,  after  an  absence  of  nearly  forty  years. 
In  the  autumn  of  1840,  at  the  end  of  the  second  day  after  leav- 
ing Milwaukee,  I  drove  into  this,  then  village,  whose  inhabitants 
numbered  less  than  the  roll  of  our  General  Assembly,  and  the 
joke  of  the  evening  at  the  hotel,  the  gathering  place  of  the  set- 
tlers, was  that  the  Mayor  of  the  City  had  lost  his  yoke  of  oxen 
on  the  public  square.  It  is  obvious  that  great  changes  have 
taken  place  since  that  visit.  But  these  evidences  of  material 
growth  that  surround  us,  are  not  more  marvelous  than  are  the 
results  of  the  Christian  activities  of  the  Church  here  repre- 
sented. 

Forty-seven  years  ago,  four  persons  sailed  from  Philadelphia 
for  India,  as  the  Pioneer  Missionaries  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  to  the  Eastern  World.  They  arrived  in  Calcutta  in 
October,  1833,  where  one  of  them  died,  and  soon  after  two 
others  re-embarked  for  home,  one  only  reaching  it,  while  the 
other  was  buried  in  the  sea. 

The  survivor  of  this  little  band  sought  to  execute  the  com- 
misssion  with  which  he  was  charged  to  plant  the  Gospel  among 
the  hardy,  independent  tribes  of  the  Northwestern  provinces. 
In  this  attempt,  he  was  checked  for  a  time,  for  Rungit  Sing, 
the  ruler  of  the  land,  refused  permission  to  open  a  Christian 
school  within  his  dominions,  and  so  our  pioneer  retires  within 
the  lines  of  British  protection  and  founds  on  the  southern 
border  of  the  river  Sutledge,  the  Lodiana  Mission.  By  and  by, 
this  noted  chieftain  of  the  Sikh  tribes,  is  brought  to  his  funeral 
pile,  and  with  his  dead  body  are  bound  and  burned  eleven  liv- 
ing females.     Soon  after  this  event  his  royal  successors  pro- 


98  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY,   1S80. 

voked  war  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  power  beyond  the  border, 
which  resulted  in  their  overthrow  and  the  moving  of  the  main 
body  of  the  Lodiana  Mission  beyond  the  Sutledge,  in  the  heart 
of  the  Punjaub,  and  now  the  Presbytery  of  Lahore  is  repre- 
sented on  the  floor  of  this  General  Assembly.  Sutteeism  is  no 
longer  a  recognized  rite  in  Northern  India.  Before  these 
events  occured,  after  welcoming  the  first  reinforcement  from 
home  and  giving  them  the  benefits  of  his  two  years'  experience, 
our  pioneer  brother  was  forced,  from  failing  health,  to  return 
to  his  native  land.  It  was  his  purpose  and  desire  to  go  back 
to  his  chosen  work,  but  God,  who  selects  and  fits  his  own 
agents  for  his  own  work,  each  in  his  appropriate  sphere,  or- 
dered otherwise.  For  more  than  forty  years  he  has  been  an 
executive  officer  of  the  Board,  and  since  the  death  of  his  ven- 
erated father,  eleven  years  ago,  its  senior  Secretary  ;  and  to- 
day, he  that  went  forth  bearing  precious  seed,  has  come  to  you 
with  its  fruits,  summarized  and  classified  in  this  43d  annual 
report. 

Is  it  inappropriate  for  one  in  my  official  relation  to  him,  or 
indelicate,  from  his  presence  here,  to  voice  the  prayer  of  this 
Assembly  that  the  work  to  which  the  Master  called  him  long 
years  ago  may  continue  for  years  to  come  to  have  the  ripe  ex- 
perience, the  mature,  moulding  judgment,  of  our  Senior  Secre- 
tary— our  pioneer  missionary. 

Much  regret  has  been  expressed  at  the  absence  here  of  our 
junior  secretary.  I  share  in  that  regret,  yet  am  not  surprised 
at  its  cause.  I  was  not  surprised  when  in  midsummer  last  I 
was  summoned  to  the  bedside  of  Dr.  Irving,  suddenly  stricken 
down,  and  who  gathered  strength  only  sufficient  to  be  con- 
veyed to  the  steamer  for  Europe,  where  perfect  rest  for  six 
months,  in  the  south  of  France,  was  enjoined  as  the  only 
means  of  prolonging  his  usefulness.  I  was  not  surprised  when 
our  beloved  Secretary  of  the  Home  Board,  Dr.  Dickson,  ap- 
peared before  you  in  so  much  weakness,  yesterday,  any  more 
than  I  was  surprised  at  your  enthusiastic  response  to  the  reso- 
lution of  the  committee  to  give  him  a  year's  leave  of  absence 
and  continue  his  salary.     Dr.  EUinwood  is    not   here  because 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY,   1880.  99 

he  attempts  more  than  he  is  physically  able  to  do.  I  believe 
the  sixth  commandment  is  the  law  for  secretaries  as  well  as 
for  pastors. 

It  is  now  nearly  thirty  years  since  my  official  connection 
with  the  Board  began,  and  the  testimony  of  this  prolonged 
service  is  of  the  spread  of  the  missionary  spirit  among  the  peo- 
ple of  God  and  of  the  spread  of  the  gospel  among  the  un- 
evangelized  nations,  and  these  have  acted  and  reacted  upon 
each  other  to  the  advancement  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom  at 
home  and  abroad. 

My  first  financial  report  acknowledged  receipts  from  the  liv- 
ing members  of  the  church  of  less  than  ^100,000,  of  which 
from  four  to  five  per  cent,  was  paid  to  agents  specially  em- 
ployed to  solicit  and  collect  it — about  the  same  proportion  that 
the  entire  cost  of  administration  now  bears  to  money  expended 
in  the  mission  fields.  This  agency  system  has  long  since  been 
abandoned,  to  the  great  relief  of  the  churches,  and  the  respon- 
sibility of  raising  supplies  for  the  work  rests  with  pastors,  ses- 
sions and  missionary  organizations.  Last  year  our  receipts 
more  than  quadrupled  those  of  thirty  years  ago,  viz.:  from  the 
living  members  of  the  church,  $440,000. 

In  1851  there  were  reported  two  hundred  native  converts  in 
mission  churches,  not  including  those  in  our  Indian  tribes;  of 
these,  six  were  in  China  and  the  rest  in  northern  India.  While 
money  receipts  have  increased  four-fold,  converts  have  multi- 
plied sixty-fold.  The  percentage  of  increase  of  church  mem- 
bers abroad  is  far  greater  than  that  of  our  home  churches.  We 
bring  up  a  report  to-day  of  over  12,000  native  church  mem- 
bers. 

In  1 85 1  there  was  no  ordained  native  minister  of  our  own 
training  in  any  mission  of  the  Board.  As  the  fruit  of  our  train- 
ing schools,  God's  Spirit  helping  them,  there  are  now  native 
pastors  receiving  their  entire  support  from  native  churches, 
and  in  some  fields  outnumbering  their  foreign  co-Presbyters. 
Our  present  roll  of  ordained  and  licentiate  native  ministers 
numbers  two  hundred  and  thirty. 

The  favoring  providence  of  God  in  this  mission  work  is  seen 


lOO  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY,   1880. 

in  the  increased  facilities  for  reaching  the  heathen.  A  large 
part  of  our  missionary  force  is  now  laboring  in  fields  which 
could  not  have  been  entered  thirty  years  ago.  Then  all  of 
China  save  five  cities  was  barred  against  the  Gospel ;  Japan 
jealously  guarded  her  coast  and  officially  trampled  upon  the 
symbol  of  Christianity;  Mexico  and  the  whole  of  papal  South 
America  excluded  the  protestant  teacher,  and  even  in  Siam 
where  missionaries  had  gone,  the  hostility  of  the  reigning  sov- 
ereign was  such  that  the  Board  authorized  their  withdrawal  to 
other  fields,  which  was  prevented  by  an  interposing  provi- 
dence, the  death  of  the  king.  All  this  is  now  changed,  and 
there  is  an  open  door  to  all  the  nations  of  the  East  and  to  all 
this  western  hemisphere.  In  other  respects  how  have  the 
facilities  for  the  spread  of  the  gospel  been  multiplied.  In  the 
foreign  postal  service,  so  greatly  improved  in  cheapness  and 
speed.  The  universal  postal  union  is  itself  a  sign  of  universal 
peace  and  good  will.  In  the  steam  ship,  everywhere  substi- 
tuted for  the  uncertain  sailing  vessel.  I  have  waited  a  week  in 
Boston  with  missionaries  for  the  loading  of  an  ice  ship  for 
India.  In  government  treaties  with  unevangelized  nations,  and 
in  the  framing  of  some  of  these  our  missionaries  have  been 
essential  factors.  In  the  universally  recognized  credit  of  the 
Board  affording  facilities  for  supplying  the  missions  with  funds. 
I  have  sent  bags  of  silver  coin  on  a  fourmonths' voyage  around 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  to  replenish  the  treasuries  in  China. 
Our  bankers  may  fail,  and  alas  have  failed,  and  their  accept- 
ances gone  to  protest,  but  the  business  world  knows  that  be- 
hind the  bankers  is  the  plighted  faith,  the  inexhaustible  re- 
sources of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

The  startling  announcement  on  the  15th  of  June,  last  year, 
of  the  suspension  of  our  English  banking  house,  was  one  of 
the  sad  events  of  the  year.  The  loss,  as  now  ascertained,  is 
stated  in  the  Treasurer's  Report,  but  the  savings  and  gains,  far 
outweighing  the  loss,  are  not  stated.  The  two  brothers,  heads 
of  this  house,  bore  honored  names  in  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
They  had  been  gratefully  recognized  by  votes  of  the  General 
Assembly  as  generous  coadjutors  in  our  mission  work.     Dur- 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE    GENERAL   ASSEMBLY,    i860.  lOI 

ing  the  dark  days  of  the  war  they  had  stood  by  us,  and  con- 
tinued for  twenty  years  to  render  us  essential  and  gratuitous 
service,  and  our  deep  regret  for  our  loss  is  mingled  with  pro- 
found sympathy  for  them. 

In  1850  it  was  decided  that  the  Board  had  no  standing  in  a 
court  of  justice,  and  could  not  enforce  the  collection  of  a  leg- 
acy which  in  all  honesty  and  fairness  belonged  to  it.  Before 
this  time  an  attempt  had  been  made  to  obtain  a  special  char- 
ter from  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York,  which 
failed,  because  there  were  in  existence  two  ecclesiastical  bodies 
claiming  the  same  name,  and  because  the  old  Board  declined  to 
accept  a  charter  with  an  appended  designation  O.  S.  The 
members  of  the  Legislature  from  central  and  western  New 
York  were  no  wiser  in  their  generation  than  were  the  Presby- 
terian ministers  from  the  same  locality. 

In  1862  another  and  successful  attempt  was  made  for  a  spe- 
cial charter,  which  was  all  that  the  O.  S.  Church  needed,  and 
which  on  the  reunion  required  no  remodeling.  It  has  stood 
the  test  of  legal  criticism  and  attack,  and  secured  important 
legacies  which  other  boards  and  benevolent  societies,  located 
in  New  York,  having  equal  claims  under  the  same  wills,  have 
lost. 

In  1850  no  unmarried  woman  had  been  commissioned  to  go 
as  a  missionary  teacher  beyond  the  limits  of  her  native  land.  I 
remember  the  first  young  lady  who  asked  to  be  sent  to  China. 
She  had  been  invited  by  her  own  sister  and  her  husband  to 
become  a  member  of  their  family  and  share  in  their  mission 
work.  The  Board  granted  her  request  ;  paid  her  passage,  but 
provided  no  outfit  ;  and  now  the  roll  of  our  unmarried  female 
missionaries  is  nearly  as  long  as  the  roll  of  ordained  minis- 
ters ;  and  scarcely  a  meeting  of  the  Board  is  held  where  we 
do  not  have  read  the  credentials  of  some  new  name  to  be  added 
to  the  roll.  And  let  us  give  thanks  that  it  is  so.  The  first 
annual  report  of  the  Board  announced  it  as  the  paramount 
duty  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  (i)  to  send  out  all  qualified 
men  who  were  accepted  for  the  foreign  field,  and  (2)  to  raise 
up  a  native  ministry.     In  recent  reports  from  mission  fields  we 


102  ADDRESS  BEFORE   THE  GENERAL   ASSEMBLY,    1880. 

learn  one  of  the  ways  in  which  the  injunction  of  Paul  to  Tim- 
othy on  this  subject  is  being  carried  out — Sue  McBeth  instruct- 
ing her  theological  class  of  Indian  licentiates  ;  Bella  Nassau 
performing  the  same  high  duties  in  Africa,  and  the  young  la- 
dies of  Petchaburi,  with  no  foreign  male  helper,  conducting 
the  whole  machinery  of  evangelization,  including  the  training 
of  theological  students.  And  no  marvel  !  Brethren  of  the 
ministry,  did  not  some  of  you  learn  more  theology  from  your 
mothers  and  elder  sisters  than  from  your  theological  profes- 
sors ? 

Young  men  in  our  seminaries  sometimes  ask  whether  the 
Board  are  likely  to  have  funds  to  send  them  out  should  they 
make  up  their  minds  to  become  foreign  missionaries 

There  is  no  occasion  to  answer  such  a  question.  It  disclo- 
ses a  lack  of  one  essential  qualification  for  this  work,  to  wit, 
the  impelling  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  Board  always 
has  means  to  send  out  men  with  fitting  endowments  who  are 
ready  to  go,  and  it  is  a  dangerous  experiment  to  commission 
any  man  to  the  foreign  field  whose  attention  is  first  directed  to 
it  during  his  seminary  course. 

But  no  such  question  is  raised  by  a  woman.  She  knows  full 
well  that  Missionary  Boards  and  Bands  are  rival  claimants  for 
her  support,  and  will  furnish  all  needful  supplies  ;  and  this 
auxiliary  feature  of  our  work  is  assuming  amazing  proportions. 
^Ve  stand  in  wondering  gratitude  at  what  our  eyes  see  on  this 
decennial  year  of  woman's  work  for  woman.  Shall  we  call  it 
an  inspiration  ?  Shall  we  speak  of  it  as  of  a  rushing,  mighty 
wind,  that  fills  all  the  house  ;  that  sweeps  away  debts  and  loss- 
es, and  bears  to  famine-stricken  mission  fields  the  sound  of 
abundance  of  rain  ?  Not  as  though  she  had  already  attained. 
With  only  half  the  human  family  of  her  own  sex  she  has  yet  to 
reach  the  normal  ideal  of  her  blessed  ministry  :  not  woman's 
work  for  woman,  but  woman's  wo.rk  for  the  heathen  world. 

Having  thus  presented  to  you,  Fathers  and  Brethren,  and 
through  you  to  the  churches,  the  encouraging  facts  and  re- 
sults summarized  in  the  43d  Annual  Report  of  the  Foreign 
Board,  and  asking  from  this  General   Assembly  an  expression 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY,    1880.  I03 

of  thanksgiving  to  God  for  these  results,  there  remains  the 
question,  what  of  the  future  ?  From  this  vantage  ground  on 
which  we  stand,  we  cannot  recede,  and  to  pause  in  our  advance 
is  to  slide  backward.  What  should  we  do  but  study  more  pro- 
foundly the  laws  of  geometrical  progression  that  govern  the 
growth  of  Christ's  Kingdom  on  the  earth,  and  live  in  the  faith 
of  them  ?  Then  shall  the  watchmen's  answering  cry  not  be, 
"  Lo,  the  morning  cometh,  and  also  the  night,"  but  "  the  morn- 
ing Cometh  in  unclouded  and  advancing  splendor." 


Address  Before  ttie  General  UssemWy  ot  Springfield, 


The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  was  reorganized  in  the  thirty- 
fourth  )ear  of  its  existence  by  the  reunited  General  Assembly 
of  1870,  and  on  the  ist  of  May,  1871,  presented  its  first  annual 
report  under  the  reunion.  The  missions  transferred  from  the 
American  to  the  Presbyterian  Board  had  all  been  enrolled  un- 
der the  blue  banner,  and  that  report  furnishes  full  statistics  of 
the  old  missions  and  of  their  newly  adopted  sisterhood. 
Eleven  years  thereafter  we  come  to  the  General  Assembly  with 
an  account  of  the  progress  of  the  work  during  this  period. 
The  number  of  ordained  American  foreign  missionaries  to-day 
is  140,  against  11 1.  The  number  of  ordained  natives  is  84, 
against  18,  and  the  number  of  communicants  in  mission 
churches  is  16,400,  against  4,200  reported  eleven  years  ago. 
It  is  evident  that  the  work  in  which  our  brethren  in  the  field 
are  engaged  is  not  all  seed  sowing.  There  is,  besides,  much 
reaping. 

There  is  also  an  increased  interest  in  the  missionary  cause 
among  our  people  at  home. 

The  contributions  of  the  living  members  of  the  Church,  as 
acknowledged  the  year  after  the  reorganization  of  the  Board, 
were  $355,000.  From  the  same  source  we  now  report 
$463,000. 

Eleven  years  ago  there  rolled  into  the  treasury  of  the  Board 
a  little  cake  of  barley  bread,  labelled  "  Woman's  Work  for 
Woman,  $7,000 — and  if  a  dreamer  had  then  told  his  dream, 
and  the  interpretation  thereof,  what  at  this  short  distance  of 
time  would  have  been  its  proportions  and  its  power,  he  would 
have  been  regarded  as  but  a  dreamer.  One  hundred  and 
twenty  additional  female  workers  are  now  in  the  field  to  the 
number  reported  then. 

The  advance  in  missionary  intelligence,  and  inquiry  into  the 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY,   1882.  I05 

State  of  the  heathen  world,  is  also  a  marked  feature  of  this 
period.  The  periodical  literature  of  the  Board  has  three 
times  the  circulation  it  commanded  even  five  years  ago,  and  if 
to  this  advance  is  added  the  recently  introduced  literature  of 
our  women's  boards,  so  successful  in  self-support  and  so  ef- 
fective in  its  blessed  results,  we  find  abundant  cause  of  grati- 
tude and  thanksgiving. 

Another  occasion  of  rejoicing  is  that  during  the  last  three 
years  we  have  been  able  to  close  each  one  of  them  free  of 
debt.  Contrast  this  with  the  financial  record  of  preceding 
years.  In  1871  we  reported  a  debt  of  $43,000;  in  1872,  of 
$30,700;  in  1873,  of  $123,000,  whose  proportions  startled  the 
General  Assembly,  and  caused  that  special  and  extraordinary 
effort  in  Baltimore,  which  saved  the  Board  from  apparent 
bankruptcy.  In  1875  we  reported  a  debt  of  $38,000  ;  in  1876, 
of  $36,000  ;  in  1877,  of  $43,000  ;  in  1878,  of  $47,000  ;  in  1879, 
$62,000.  The  announcement  of  a  debt  to  burden  the  work  of 
a  new  year  produces  a  discouraging  and  depressing  effect  upon 
the  brethren  in  the  field,  for  it  is  always  followed  by  another 
announcement  from  the  Finance  Committee — expenses  must 
be  reduced,  enlargement  repressed,  and  so  retrenchment  be- 
comes the  watchword  in  all  our  missions. 

I  refer  to  one  other  occasion  of  rejoicing  not  found  in  the 
annual  report,  but  in  the  manuscript  records  of  the  Board, 
which  have  been  under  review  of  your  standing  committee. 
It  is  there  recorded  that  thirty  young  men,  graduates  of  our 
seminaries,  have  applied  and  been  accepted  for  the  foreign 
field.  This  is  largely  in  excess  of  the  number  of  candidates 
of  any  former  year. 

We  may  judge  of  the  degree  of  missionary  zeal  in  the 
Church  in  other  ways,  but  the  surest  test  is  consecration  to 
this  self  denying  work  in  our  theological  seminaries,  and  may 
not  the  Church  rejoice  in  what  God  has  been  doing  in  these 
schools  of  the  prophets  ?  And  what  better  expression  of  grat- 
itude can  be  made  than  by  equipping  and  maintaining  these 
young  brethren.  If  there  is  this  enlargement  of  our  mission- 
ary force,  there  must  be  a  corresponding  increase  of  funds  in 


Io6  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY,   1882. 

the  treasury.  Last  year  we  spent  $591,000.  The  Board  will 
have  to  appropriate  for  necessary  expenses  of  the  coming  year 
at  least  $640,000.  Can  the  Church  meet  such  a  demand  ? 
Will  our  people  contribute  for  the  entire  Foreign  work  an 
average  of  one  dollar  per  member  ?  The  addition  of  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  new  men,  especially  if  married  men,  which  I  trust 
they  all  may  become  for  the  sake  of  their  greater  usefulness, 
and  their  personal  good,  involves  not  only  the  expense  of  out- 
fit and  passage  and  salary,  but  the  building  of  houses.  It  has 
from  the  beginning  been  the  policy  of  the  Board  not  to  rent, 
but  to  buy  and  build.  The  ownership  of  real  estate  in  the 
several  missions,  of  the  aggregate  value  of  not  less  than  $750, 
000,  is  an  evidence  to  the  native  mind  that  we  have  come  to 
stay,  and  it  becomes  a  needed  credit  in  all  money  transactions 
in  those  distant  lands. 

I  appeal,  then,  to  this  General  Assembly,  not  for  an  enlarge- 
ment of  our  work,  but  for  the  means  of  supporting  what  has 
already  been  secured. 

Some  years  ago  one  of  my  own  children  who  like  a  fading 
flower  was  passing  away,  said  to  me  :  "  I  am  so  glad  I  gave  my 
heart  to  Jesus  before  I  was  sick."  About  the  same  time  we 
received  at  the  Mission  House  from  India  an  account  of  the 
death  of  a  native  convert.  "  I  asked  him,"  said  Dr.  Campbell, 
"if  he  was  afraid  to  die  ?  "  No,  sir,"  he  said,  "  I  am  not  now 
afraid.  I  am  now  fully  reconciled  to  the  will  of  God.  Christ 
is  the  only  Saviour,  and  I  know  he  will  not  disappoint  my 
hopes,"  and  then  bursting  into  tears,  he  said,  "Oh,  sir,  how 
much  I  owe  to  you  !  You  are  the  means  of  leading  me  to 
Christ  and  of  instructing  me  and  saving  my  soul."  At  that 
moment  I  thought  that  this  was  more  than  enough  to  compen- 
sate me  for  all  the  trials  I  have  ever  been  called  to  endure  as 
a  missionary.  Moderator  and  brethren,  I  believe  that  the  child 
of  American  and  Christian  parents  dear  to  them  as  their  own 
lives  is  to-day  no  nearer  the  throne,  she  wears  no  whiter 
robes  and  sings  no  sweeter  song  than  the  Hindoo  youth  res- 
cued from  idolatry  and  raised  to  Heaven  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  your  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 


Itie  Week  of  Pnnier. 


The  annual  meeting  of  the  Lodiana  mission,  held  in  Novem- 
ber, 1858,  has  become  memorable  in  the  history  of  the  Church. 
The  missionaries  had  convened  from  their  several  stations,  and 
after  disposing  of  their  ordinary  business,  considered  and 
adopted  the  minute  hereafter  recited,  calling  for  a  world-wide 
Concert  of  Prayer.  This  call  met  its  first  response  in  a  pre- 
liminary three-days'  concert  among  themselves  before  their  final 
adjournment.  Dr.  Morrison  says  of  this  meeting  :  "  It  was  a 
precious  three  days,  and  made  us.  feel  that  God  was  with  us — 
that  He  was  giving  us  an  earnest  of  the  blessings  we  sought  in 
issuing  the  invitation."  Dr.  James  R.  Campbell,  writing  to  his 
wife,  then  in  this  country,  says  :  "  We  have  had  the  most  de- 
lightful three  days  I  have  ever  spent.  The  prayers  and  re- 
marks were  most  importunate  and  touching,  and,  instead  of 
flagging,  all  the  meetings  increased  in  interest.  Scarcely  any 
one  spoke  or  prayed  but  in  tears,  and  every  one  around  weep- 
ing also.  At  the  closing,  and  just  before  the  last  prayer,  I 
asked  special  prayer  for  all  the  missionaries,  either  absent  from 
the  meeting  or  in  America,  and  for  all  the  children  of  missiona- 
ries, either  in  this  country  or  in  America,  and  that  they  might 
all  in  due  time  be  converted  to  Christ  ;  and  oh,  if  you  had 
heard  the  prayer  that  followed  by  Mr.  Newton,  and  heard  the 
sobs  and  weeping  all  around,  it  would  have  cheered  you  up  in- 
deed and  increased  your  confidence  in  God's  promises  for  the 
children  of  His  people.  I  believe  our  faith  was  strong  and  that 
divine  love  filled  every  heart.     //  was  like  heaven  on  earth.'* 

Such  was  the  encouraging  token  of  God's  sanction  which 
followed  the  Lodiana  invitation  for  a  week  of  prayer.  More- 
over, antecedent  events  had  a  marked  influence  in  inspir- 
ing it. 


I08  THE    WEEK    OF    PRAYER. 

The  preceding  year  had  been  eventful  in  the  history  of  mis- 
sions and  in  the  annals  of  India.  Scenes  of  violence  and  cruelty 
had  been  enacted  that  thrilled  the  heart  of  the  civilized  world.  It 
seemed  as  though  all  the  cupidity  and  oppression  and  anti- 
Christian  policy  that  had  marked  the  British  rule  in  India  for 
two  centuries  were  to  be  atoned  for,  and  every  English  officer 
and  foreign  resident  in  the  land  were  to  be  swept  into  the  sea 
or  buried  in  blood  beneath  the  soil. 

In  this  awful  tragedy  their  own  brethren  had  their  full  share 
of  suffering.  Many  of  them  for  personal  safety  took  refuge  in 
military  forts  ;  their  property  to  a  vast  amount  was  destroyed, 
and  survivors  mourned  the  martyr  death  of  beloved  associates 
who  had  fallen  victims  to  Sepoy  violence.  What  our  Method- 
ist brethren  suffered  in  the  "  Land  of  the  Veda,"  is  graphically 
told  in  Dr.  Butler's  book  bearing  that  title.  When  these  dis- 
tressing events  first  became  known  in  New  York,  the  Executive 
Committee  of  our  Presbyterian  Foreign  Board  convened  in 
special  session,  and  after  making  provision  for  the  immediate 
wants  of  surviving  missionaries  they  adopted  a  circular  calling 
upon  all  the  churches  represented  by  them  for  a  season  of 
special  prayer.  The  call  was  responded  to  at  once  by  the 
churches  of  New  York  and  its  neighborhood.  It  was  renewed 
by  presbyteries  and  synods  then  soon  to  convene.  Five  days 
after  the  circular  was  issued  the  Fulton  Street  prayer  meeting 
was  established.  A  feeling  of  mingled  sorrow  and  sympathy 
pervaded  the  whole  land,  and  earnestly  did  petitions  ascend  to 
God  that  our  brethren  might  not  be  given  over  to  the  wrath  of 
the  heathen  nor  the  door  of  missionary  labor  closed  upon  them. 

The  Sepoy  rebellion  was  crushed  through  the  instrumentality 
of  British  arms.  God  heard  prayer  for  India,  and  answered  it 
for  India  and  America.  The  succeeding  months  formed  a 
bright  era  in  the  American  church.  Thousands  united  with 
the  people  of  God,  and  property  to  the  value  of  millions  was 
consecrated  to  His  service. 

The  story  of  these  glorious  events  went  back  to  India  and 
produced  as  profound  an  impression  there,  though  of  a  differ- 
ent character,  as  the  Sepoy  rebellion  produced  here — a  revived 


THE    WEEK    OF    PRAYER.  I09 

spirit  came  upon  our  missionaries.  Some  of  their  own  children 
at  home  had  been  converted,  and  their  hearts  burned  within 
them  in  grateful  emotions  and  in  longing  for  the  salvation  of 
men. 

Such  were  the  antecedents  of  this  annual  meeting  of  the 
Lodiana  mission,  and  the  invitation  to  a  universal  concert  of 
prayer  is  issued  in  the  following  words  :  "  Whereas  our  spirits 
have  been  greatly  refreshed  by  what  we  have  heard  of  the 
Lord's  dealing  with  his  people  in  America,  and  further  being 
convinced  from  the  signs  of  the  times  that  God  has  still  larger 
blessings  for  His  people  and  for  our  ruined  world,  and  that  He 
now  seems  ready  and  waiting  to  bestow  them  as  soon  as  asked; 
therefore  resolved,  that  we  appoint  the  second  week  in  Janu- 
ary, i860,  beginning  with  Monday  the  8th,  as  a  time  of  special 
prayer,  and  that  all  God's  people  of  every  name  and  nation,  of 
every  continent  and  island,  be  cordially  and  earnestly  invited 
to  unite  with  us  in  the  petition  that  God  would  now  pour  out 
His  Spirit  upon  all  flesh  so  that  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  might 
see  His  salvation." 

Such  is  the  origin  of  our  week  of  prayer,  and  may  the  spirit 
that  pervades  its  annual  return  be  in  full  sympathy  with  that 
which  inaugurated  it. 


Itie  ?ix  ^tuQrts. 


These  were  George  H.  and  David,  Joseph  and  James,  Rob- 
ert L.  and  Alexander.  The  first  four  named  were  brothers,  and 
not  related  to  the  last  two,  who  were  also  brothers.  The  first 
pair  were  partners  in  business,  as  were  also  the  second  and 
third  pairs,  and  all  were  office-bearers  or  active  members  in 
the  Presbyterian  Church.  The  only  survivor  (October,  1889) 
of  the  six  is  George  H.,  who  is  preparing  his  autobiography, 
which  when  published  will  be  a  fitting  companion  of  the 
"  Memorials  "  of  that  other  American  philanthropist,  William 
E.  Dodge. 

He  was  Treasurer  of  the  Reformed  Presbyterian  Synod, 
whose  missionaries  in  India  were  mainly  sustained  by  that 
Synod,  but  by  special  arrangement  were  under  the  care  and 
control  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  He  was  at  the  same  time  partner  with  his  brother 
David  in  a  banking  house  in  Liverpool,  and  my  official  corre- 
spondence with  him  led  to  the  inquiry,  with  a  view  to  facilitate 
and  economize  remittances,  on  what  terms  his  house  would  be- 
come the  acceptors  and  guarantors  of  bills  of  credit  issued  by 
the  Treasurer  of  the  Board  to  our  Eastern  missions  ?  Upon 
his  offer  to  perform  this  service  gratuitously  and  cheerfully,  a 
relationship  was  established  with  David  Stuart  and  Company, 
which  continued  twenty-two  years,  with  an  average  annual 
saving  in  commissions  of  not  less  than  four  thousand  dollars, 
which  received  the  grateful  recognition  of  the  General  Assembly. 

During  this  time  the  country  passed  through  the  Civil  War, 
and  the  consequent  depreciation  of  its  currency  continuing 
long  after  the  war  closed.  In  those  trying  days  our  Board  had 
no  financial  committee  and  no  security  fund,  and  the  responsi- 
bility of  sustaining  its  credit  and  keeping  up  mission  supplies 
devolved  mainly  upon  the  Treasurer.  Special  notice  of  this 
was  made  by  Mr.  William  A.  Booth,  a  member  of  the  Board,  in 
an  address  before  the  General  Assembly  at  St.  Louis  in  1874. 


THE    SIX    STUARTS.  Ill 

About  the  time  of  the  greatest  depreciation  of  the  currency, 
David  Stuart  visited  New  York,  and  in  an  interview  had  with 
him,  in  which  he  was  made  acquainted  with  the  embarrass- 
ments attending  the  Treasuryship,  he  assured  me  that  should 
there  be  any  failure  from  any  cause  to  meet  the  payments  of 
his  maturing  acceptances,  neither  the  Board  nor  the  missions 
should  suffer.  He  moreover  advised  that  I  make  no  sacrifices 
to  sustain  the  Board's  credit  with  his  house,  but  rather  delay 
remitting  until  reasonable  rates  of  exchange  could  be  obtained. 
Happily,  I  had  no  occasion  to  take  advantage  of  this  generous 
advice,  yet  it  was  a  great  relief  to  have  this  assurance  of  sym- 
pathy and  CO  operation  from  so  important  an  agency  in  our 
mission  supplies. 

During  the  twenty- two  years  of  this  relation  with  David 
Stuart  and  Company,  I  purchased  all  our  foreign  exchange 
of  the  New  York  house  of  Joseph  and  James  Stuart  (J. 
and  J.  Stuart  and  Company),  not  because  of  any  connec- 
tion between  the  two  firms  (for  each  was  independent  of  the 
other),  but  because  of  their  accommodating  business  methods 
with  me.  In  those  non-specie  paying  times,  there  were  wide 
fluctuations  in  the  cost  of  exchange  day  by  day,  and  some- 
times hour  by  hour,  and  in  purchasing  from  this  house,  I 
obtained  the  most  favorable  quotations  of  the  market  between 
steamer  days,  and  sometimes  on  settlement,  concessions  were 
made  when  the  rate  had  afterwards  fallen.  The  sudden  death 
of  Joseph  Stuart,  stricken  with  paralysis  in  his  office,  and  the 
subsequent  death  of  James,  after  a  protracted  illness,  deprived 
me  of  valued  advisers  and  the  mission  cause  of  warm  supporters. 
In  1879  reverses  came  upon  the  house  of  David  Stuart  and 
Company,  which  involved  the  Board  in  heavy  pecuniary  loss, 
though  not  to  the  extent  of  the  gains  which  had  accrued  from 
their  long  gratuitous  services.  The  first  knowledge  of  this 
failure  was  communicated  to  me  by  Mr.  J.  D.  Vermilye,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Merchants'  National  Bank,  New  York,  who  not 
only  offered  his  services  in  protecting  the  credit  of  the  Board, 
but  also  in  obtaining  from  friends  in  New  York  special  funds 


112  THE    SIX    STUARTS. 

to  reimburse  any  ascertained  loss.  In  the  latter  generous  un- 
dertaking he  was  arrested  by  Alexander  Stuart,  who  had 
planned  another  way  to  meet  the  same  end.  This  was  dis- 
closed a  few  months  later,  when  he  invited  Secretary  Lowrie 
and  myself  to  dine  at  his  house.  At  the  table  he  referred  to 
the  long  and  gratuitous  services  rendered  the  Board  by  David 
and  George  H.  Stuart,  and  of  his  personal  esteem  for  them. 
He  expressed  the  desire  that  no  retrenchment  of  our  work 
should  be  made  by  reason  of  any  loss  through  them,  and  then 
asked  the  amount  of  the  Board's  indebtedness,  which  he  evi- 
dently intended  at  once  to  cover  with  his  check.  Not  being 
prepared  to  answer  directly  the  question  as  put,  I  promised 
to  furnish  a  written  statement  in  detail  of  our  financial  condi- 
tion then,  and  as  estimated  at  the  close  of  the  year.  This  was 
done,  but  before  hearing  from  him  he  was  called  to  his  rest 
and  reward,  having  bequeathed  his  estate  to  his  brother  Rob- 
ert. Shortly  before  closing  the  mission  accounts  for  that  year, 
I  informed  the  surviving  brother  of  the  amount  of  deficiency 
in  the  treasury,  and  a  few  hours  later  1  received  his  checki 
which  more  than  met  this,  and  it  was  the  first  year  since  the 
Reunion  that  the  Board  reported  itself  out  of  debt.  Since  the 
death  of  Robert  L.  Stuart  his  widow  has  been  a  close  imitator  of 
her  husband's  generous  doings  in  his  lifetime,  and  the  year  before 
my  official  connection  with  the  Board  ended,  on  my  informing 
her  of  what  was  needed  to  place  the  balance  on  the  credit  side 
of  the  Treasurer's  annual  report,  she,  in  addition  to  her  yearly 
contribution,  added  a  sum  which  fully  met  the  required 
amount.  Thus  was  I  indebted  to  the  six  Stuarts,  or  rather,  I 
should  say,  to  the  seven,  for  their  generous  co-operation  in  the 
important  duties  entrusted  to  me  as  Treasurer  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  Board. 
November  i,  1889. 

Being  requested  by  George  H.  Stuart,  while  he  was  prepar- 
ing his  autobiography,  which  was  published  shortly  after  his 
death  in  1890,  to  make  some  statement  of  the  business  rela- 
tions of  David  Stuart  &  Co.   with  the    Foreign  Board,    I   sent 


THE    SIX    STUARTS.  I13 

him  the  foregoing  as  my  answer,  which  appears  as  Appendix 
No,  I  in  the  life  of  that  sainted  philanthropist. 

Mrs.  Robert  L.  Stuart,  the  survivor  of  her  husband  and  his 
brother,  died  in  1891,  leaving  large  bequests  to  the  benevolent 
agencies  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The  Foreign  Board  pro- 
poses to  invest  most  of  its  share  as  a  monument  to  the  family 
that  created  and  so  religiously  distributed  the  Stuart  estate. 
This  will  create  a  Security  fund,  which  has  long  been  needed, 
the  income  of  which  may  be  used  to  reduce  the  percentage  of 
expense  of  the  Home  department,  or  applied  for  the  support 
of  children  of  missionaries  sent  to  the  United  States  for  train- 
ing and  education,  and  for  which  there  is  already  a  permanent 
fund  of  $13,200.  For  more  than  half  the  fiscal  year  the  treas- 
urer of  the  Board  is  obliged  to  anticipate  current  receipts  by 
bank  loans,  which  have  aggregated  at  times  as  high  as  $150,000. 
The  customs  of  the  churches  as  to  their  seasons  for  contribu- 
tions cannot  be  changed.  The  dry  months  of  the  year  will 
continue  dry,  and  the  flood  tide  comes  only  in  the  winter  and 
spring.  Payments,  however,  are  uniform  month  by  month,  and 
hence  the  necessity  of  temporary  loans,  and  the  more  sure  and 
complete  the  security  the  more  favorable  may  be  the  terms  of 
such  loans  and  the  more  independent  will  be  the  treasury. 

There  stands  on  the  mantel-shelf  of  the  Mission  Library,  in 
a  gilded  frame,  now  tarnished  by  time,  a  circular  letter  ad- 
dressed to  Mr.  Stuart,  requesting  his  attendance  at  a  meeting  in 
the  Brick  Church  Chapel,  January  15,  1838,  "  in  aid  of  the 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church."  The 
circular  is  signed  by  five  ministers  and  six  laymen  of  the  city 
of  New  York,  none  of  whom  are  now  living.  Underneath  that 
printed  circular,  by  his  own  familiar  hand,  is  written,  "  Robert 
L.  Stuart  subscribed  at  this  meeting  $500."  The  gift  was  from 
a  young  merchant,  who  was  laying  the  foundation  of  that  busi- 
ness prosperity  which  attended  him  through  life,  and  it  was  the 
first  of  those  annual  and  swelling  gifts  which  kept  pace  with 
that  prosperity.  That  early  circular  and  subscription  will,  I 
trust,  be  preserved  as  an  object  lesson  illustrating  the  proverb  : 
"There  is  that  scattereth  and  yet  increaseth." 


Iwo  Old  Presbiiterians. 


In  the  Spring  of  1856,  a  man,  aged  and  infirm,  came  into 
the  Mission  House  and  laid  upon  the  Treasurer's  table  thirty 
dollars,  with  the  remark,  "  I  think  it  is  the  last.  It  all  goes  to 
the  heathen.  Put  it  down  from  an  old  Presbyterian."  He 
appeared  unusually  feeble  as  he  walked,  leaning  upon  a  staff 
which  reached  to  his  chin,  and  seated  himself  heavily  upon  a 
chair.  I  thought  perhaps  his  prediction  would  be  fulfilled — 
that  this  was  his  last  visit  and  his  last  gift  for  foreign  missions; 
and  such  it  proved  to  be,  for  not  many  days  after  came  an  un- 
dertaker's note  for  our  Senior  Secretary  to  act  as  pallbearer  at  the 
funeral  of  William  Steele.  His  calls  at  the  Treasurer's  office 
had  been  quite  regular — about  every  second  month.  During 
the  year  preceding  his  death,  I  find  seven  different  acknowl- 
edgments of  sums  varying  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  dollars 
credited  to  him,  and,  as  I  remember,  at  each  visit  he  repeated 
about  the  same  words,  "  So  much  over  this  month.  It  all  goes 
to  the  heathen.  Put  it  down  from  an  old  Presbyterian."  Mr. 
Steele  had  been  forty  years  an  elder  in  the  old  Canal  Street 
Church,  and  a  memorial  discourse,  setting  forth  his  godly  and 
useful  life,  was  preached  by  Dr.  R.  W.  Dickinson,  who  was 
for  a  time  his  pastor.  When  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
was  located  in  New  York,  he  was  chosen  a  member,  and  for 
some  years  was  one  of  the  Executive  Committee  until  the  in- 
firmities of  age  led  to  his  resignation.  Being  thus  familiar 
with  the  work  of  the  Board,  and  appreciating  its  peculiar 
needs,  all  his  limited  income  above  personal  expenses  went  into 
its  treasury. 

The  termination  of  these  regular  visits,  extending  through 
some  years,  led  to  my  publishing  in  The  Foreign  Missionary 
and  in  its  Sunday  School  edition  a  notice  of  what  an  old  Pres- 
byterian (withholding  his  name)  had  been  doing  for  the  cause 
of  foreign  missions,  and  I  expressed  the  hope  that  some  other 


TWO    OLD    PRESBYTERIANS.  TI5 

servant  of  Christ,  "  who  had  something  over,"  would  appear 
in  his  stead  and  continue  his  beneficent  work. 

A  few  days  thereafter,  a  venerable  man  came  into  the  Mis- 
sion House,  and  holding  up  in  a  trembling  hand  a  copy  of  the 
Sunday  School  paper,  inquired,  "  Is  this  the  place  where  this 
paper  is  published  ?"  On  being  informed  that  it  was,  he  said 
to  me,  "  I  am  an  old  Presbyterian,  and  would  like  to  take  the 
place  of  the  one  referred  to  here,  and  who  has  gone  to  heaven. 
I  have  money  that  I  want  to  give  to  the  Lord,  but  have  not 
known  where  to  put  it."  I  told  him  that  he  had  come  to  the 
right  place ;  that  this  Board  was  doing  a  good  work  for  the 
Master,  and  could  use  all  the  funds  he  had  in  his  heart  and 
hand  to  bestow.  After  some  further  explanation,  he  took  from 
his  pocket  $ioo,  saying,  "I  have  not  much  with  me,  and  will 
come  again  with  more."  And  he  did  return  with  more  several 
times,  and  held  long  conversations  with  the  secretaries  and  my- 
self about  the  disposal  of  his  money.  He  would  inquire, 
"  What  other  good  causes  are  wanting  ?'  He  did  not  wish,  he 
said,  all  his  money  to  go  to  the  same  object.  On  one  occa- 
sion— and  it  was  near  the  close  of  his  visits — he  left  a  large 
amount  of  securities,  which  was  distributed  according  to  a 
schedule  made  out  at  the  time,  from  which  each  of  the  Mission 
Boards  received  $5,000,  and  a  much  greater  sum  was  appor- 
tioned to  other  Boards  and  benevolent  societies.  His  standing 
reason  for  these  offerings  was,  "I  have  enough  left  for  myself 
My  family  have  enough,  and  I  want  to  give  to  the  Lord.'' 
Thus  the  seed  intended  exclusively  for  the  heathen  bore  some 
of  its  fruit  in  our  own  Christian  land. 

Years  ago  John  Millard  entered  into  his  reward,  and  in 
his  will,  if  he  left  one,  as  was  the  case  with  the  other  old  Presby- 
terian, there  was  no  bequest,  executory  devise,  or  remainder  for 
any  benevolent  institution.  As  to  such,  he  had  been  his  own 
executor. 


M  Douid  Irving,  D.  1. 


From  the  November  Foreign  Missionary  of  1885. 

We  record  with  tender  emotions  the  death  of  our  esteemed 
and  beloved  associate,  Rev.  David  Irving,  D.  D.,  which 
occurred  at  his  home  in  Orange,  N.  J.,  October  12,  1885,  in  the 
sixty-fifth  year  of  his  age.  During  his  attendance  at  the  coun- 
cil at  Belfast  last  year,  he  met  with  an  accident  from  which  he 
never  fully  recovered,  but  which  weakened  and  in  the  end  par- 
alyzed his  entire  system  and  closed  his  useful  life. 

The  services  at  his  funeral  and  burial  were  conducted  by 
Dr.  J,  D.  Wells,  President  of  the  Board,  Dr.  John  Hall,  his  com- 
panion at  the  Belfast  conference,  Dr.  Yeomans,  pastor  of  Orange 
Central  Church,  where  the  family  worship.  Dr.  Hickok  pastor 
of  Brick  Church  Orange,  Dr.  Paxton  of  Princeton,  and  Dr. 
Arthur  Mitchell,  Associate  Secretary.  The  members  of  the 
Board  attended  the  funeral  as  mourners.  The  memorial 
sketches,  so  truthful  and  appropriate,  spoken  at  the  funeral,  will 
doubtless  be  gathered  in  a  family  volume  and  be  a  precious 
memento  also  to  many  outside  the  family  circle. 

Dr.  Irving  was  bom  at  Annondale,  Dumfrieshire,  Scotland, 
August  21,  1821.  He  pursued  his  classical  education  in  Scot- 
land, and  coming  to  America  was  graduated  at  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  Princeton. 

In  1846  he  went  to  India  as  a  missionary  of  this  Board  and 
was  stationed  at  Futtchgurh,  but  after  three  years'  service  was 
obliged  to  return  home  in  consequence  of  the  failing  health  of 
Mrs.  Irving.  He  then  became  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  at  North  Salem,  N.  Y.,  where  he  remained  five  years, 
when  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  at 
Morristown,  N.  J.  During  these  pastorates,  he  took  a  lively 
interest  in   the  work  of  the  Foreign  Board,  was  frequently  at 


REV.    DAVID    IRVING,    D.    D.  II7 

the  Mission  House  for  detailed  information,  and  raised  greatly 
the  standard  of  beneficence  among  his  people  by  exciting 
their  special  interest  in  Foreign  Missions.  While  laboring  with 
great  acceptance  at  Morristown,  a  call  was  extended  to  him  to 
become  Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Board  as  the  associate  of 
Walter  Lowrie  and  Dr.  John  C.  Lowrie.  This  was  made  by 
the  Executive  Committee  at  its  meeting  April  17,  1865,  and 
ratified  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Board  in  May  following. 
It  is  interesting  to  recall  the  names  of  the  committee  who 
selected  Dr.  Irving  from  the  prominent  men  of  the  Church 
for  this  important  office.  The  members  present  at  this  meet- 
ing were  Drs.  John  M.  Krebs,  Nathan  L.  Rice,  John  D. 
Wells,  Charles  K.  Imbrie,  John  C.  Lowrie,  Messrs.  Robt.  L. 
Stuart,  James  Lenox,  Robert  Carter,  Lebbeus  B.  Ward, 
J,  Talbot  Olyphant,  Walter  Lowrie  and  Willam  Rankin. 

Though  dwelling  among  a  united  and  loving  people  and  en- 
joying one  of  the  most  desirable  parishes  in  the  country,  yet 
his  love  for  the  work  to  which  he  had  early  consecrated  his  life> 
led  him  to  accept  this  trying  and  responsible  position  to  which 
he  was  now  called.  During  his  twenty  years  of  service,  Dr, 
Irving  performed  an  amount  of  labor  which  only  a  strong 
physical  constitution  could  have  undergone,  and  which  the 
volumes  of  ofificial  correspondence  on  our  shelves,  the  carefully 
prepared  papers  on  mission  subjects,  the  annual  reports  and 
the  Foreign  Missionary,  of  which,  for  most  of  the  time,  he  was 
sole  editor^  are  the  evidence. 

Dr.  Irving's  experience  as  a  missionary,  added  to  his  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  work  of  our  own  and  kindred  societies,  and 
his  wide  acquaintance  with  the  churches,  gave  to  his  judgment 
of  all  questions  brought  before  the  Board  a  commanding  in- 
fluence. His  official  correspondence  was  characterized  by 
clearness  of  conviction  and  expression,  tempered  with  gentle 
sympathy.  He  loved  the  brethren  and  loved  the  cause  in 
which  they  together  labored,  and  would  cheerfully  have  ex- 
changed places  with  any  of  them  had  Providence  so  ordered 

No  one  could  work  by  the  side  of  Dr.  Irving  without  loving 
him.     No  one  applied  to  him  in  times  of  trial  and  perplexity 


Il8  REV.    DAVID    IRVING,    D.    D, 

without  finding  a  sympathetic  brother  and  counsellor.  We 
have  secured  a  pleasing  likeness  of  our  deceased  Secretary. 
But  our  friend  and  brother  is  not  in  the  picture  ;  the  genial 
face  that  smiled  so  kindly  in  his  daily  greetings,  is  wanting. 
We  laid  carefully  his  remains  in  Greenwood  cemetery  ;  but  Dr. 
Irving  is  not  there.  He  has  gone  to  be  with  his  loving  Lord 
and  Saviour.     His  works  do  follow  him.  W.  R. 


Rei).  WilliDiii  Hmiiiltoii. 


During  the  summer  and  early  autumn  of  1891  three  mission- 
aries were  removed  by  death  whose  united  terms  of  service  in 
the  foreign  field  extended  over  a  period  of  more  than  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years.  Rev.  John  Newton  went  to  India  in  1835  A^ 
and  died  on  the  2d  of  July,  Rev.  A.  W.  ^rewio-to  China  in  1844  /  . -^  , 
and  died  on  the  26th  of  July,  and  Rev.  William  Hamilton  to'^ 
the  Iowa  Indians  in  1837  and  died  on  the  17th  of  September. 
For  the  last  two  years,  by  reason  of  the  transfer  of  the  Indian 
missions,  the  last  named  was  under  the  Home  Board.  On  see- 
ing a  notice  that  some  of  Mr.  Hamilton's  friends  and  neighbors 
had  been  celebrating  his  eighty-first  birthday,  I  wrote  him  a 
few  lines  of  congratulation  on  his  lengthened  and  useful  service 
in  the  field.  On  the  loth  of  September  he  replied  on  eight 
pages  of  full-sized  letter-paper,  and  one  week  thereafter  he 
was  suddenly  called  to  his  reward.  Much  of  this  letter  is  taken 
up  with  his  personal  affairs.  Some  of  his  bodily  ailments  and 
other  trials  are  referred  to  ;  also  his  family  and  work.  Refer- 
ring to  the  late  Walter  Lowrie,  he  says  "  His  love  to  me  seemed 
to  be  that  of  a  father  to  a  son."     Of  his  work  he  writes  : 

"With  you  I  can  say  my  missionary  life  has  been  a  happy 
one.  I  am  strictly  in  a  foreign  field  preaching  to  the  people  in 
their  own  language.  Since  my  seventieth  year  I  have  been  with- 
out an  interpreter.  I  spend  my  Sabbaths  in  going  from  house 
to  house  among  those  who  do  not  attend  church,  reading  and 
singing  and  praying  and  talking  to  them.  I  see  some  of  my 
acquaintances  are  '  honorably  retired.'  If  I  were  offered  a 
larger  salary  to  give  up  my  work  and  rest,  I  would  not  like  to 
do  it.  In  looking  back  through  all  my  missionary  life,  I  can 
say  'the  Lord  has  dealt  well  with  His  servant  according  to  His 
word.'  " 


I20  REV.    WILLIAM    HAMILTON. 

On  his  birthday,  August  ist,  he  rode  thirty  miles  and 
preached  a  funeral  sermon  at  the  house  of  a  lady  who  had  died 
and  whom  two  days  before  her  death  he  had  baptized  "in  the 
full  assurance  that  she  was  a  true  child  of  Christ."  On  return- 
ing home  in  the  evening  he  found  his  house  full  of  friends, 
both  white  and  Indian,  with  a  band  of  music  at  the  door. 
"  After  the  band  had  ceased  their  musical  performances  I 
thanked  them  for  their  kindness  and  told  them  all  I  could  do 
was  to  sing  for  them,  and  sang  a  verse  in  German,  one  in 
Greek,  one  in  Latin,  one  in  Iowa  and  one  in  Omaha,  to  differ- 
ent tunes." 

Mr.  Hamilton's  second  wife  survives  him,  and  their  two 
daughters,  who  are  receiving  their  education  at  Bellevue  Col- 
lege, and  one  son,  a  minor.  He  leaves  no  property  for  their 
support  save  the  house  which  he  built  for  his  home  some  years 
ago  at  Decatur,  near  the  Omaha  Reservation.  The  family  have 
depended  for  their  support  on  his  salary  of  $8co. 

The  Territory  of  Nebraska  was  organized  at  the  mission 
house  in  Bellevue  in  1854,  where  Mr.  Hamilton  resided  as  Su- 
perintendent of  the  Omaha  Mission,  having  been  transferred 
from  the  Iowa  Station,  and  where  he  preached  the  funeral  ser- 
mon over  the  remains  of  its  first  Governor.  In  1858  the  late 
Secretary  Walter  Lowrie  and  myself  passed  ten  days  in  his 
home,  where  an  acquaintance  ripened  into  a  friendship  which 
led  to  a  correspondence  of  thirty-three  years'  continuance. 
Mr.  Hamilton  was  the  son  of  a  farmer  in  Western  Pennsyl- 
vania, received  his  theological  training  in  Allegheny  Seminary, 
was  ordained  by  the  Presbytery  of  Northumberland  in  1837 
and  immediately  left  for  the  Indian  field.  The  young  wife 
who  accompanied  him,  died  some  thirty  .years  thereafter.  She 
was  a  woman  of  rare  excellence. 


Ijev.  J  Dines  P.  Wilson,  D.  D. 


By  the  enabling  act  of  1870  the  Synod  of  New  Jersey  was 
constituted  to  meet  on  the  21st  of  June  of  that  year  in  West- 
minster Church,  Elizabeth,  and  to  be  opened  with  a  sermon 
by  Rev.  James  P.  Wilson,  D.  D.  The  selection  of  Dr.  Wilson 
as  the  moderator  of  the  reorganized  synod  under  the  reunion 
within  whose  bounds  he  was  pastor,  shows  the  prominence  he 
then  held  in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The  same  year  he  was 
chosen  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  con- 
tinued as  such  until  his  death,  which  occurred  on  the  22nd  of 
May  last,  having  been  present  at  a  meeting  held  early  that 
month,  which  passed  upon  the  annual  report  of  the  year  just 
closed. 

At  the  last  regular  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  of  Newark, 
pending  some  question  involving  the  integrity  of  our  Church 
standards,  Dr.  Wilson  referred  to  his  own  ecclesiastical  history, 
saying,  that  *'  he  was  a  Presbyterian  through  and  through,  as 
were  also  his  ancestors  of  several  generations."  The  history 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  verifies  that  claim  with  the  further 
fact  that  they  were  eminent  ministers  and  leaders  in  it.  His 
father,  whose  name  he  bore,  was  for  twenty-two  years  pastor 
of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Philadelphia,  of  whom 
Dr.  Samuel  Miller  says:  "  In  piety,  in  learning,  in  talents  and 
in  power  as  a  preacher  he  had  few  equals."  The  same  high 
authority,  referring  to  his  grandfather,  Matthew  Wilson,  D.  D., 
says.  "  He  ever  held  a  high  place  in  public  estimation.  Ingen- 
ious, learned,  pious,  patriotic  and  benevolent  in  an  eminent 
degree,  all  that  knew  him  respected  him,  and  he  had  no 
enemies  but  the  enemies  of  truth  and  righteousness.  In  the 
Revolutionary  contest  his  patriotic  efforts  were  unremitted — he 
took  the  side  of  his  country  with  great  decision  and  zeal." 


122  REV.    JAMES    P.    WILSON,    D.    D. 

It  cannot  be  said  of  the  subject  of  this  notice  that  he  was 
inferior  in  any  of  the  above  characteristics  to  his  distinguished 
ancestors.  The  normal  laws  of  heredity  find  in  him  a  conspic- 
uous example.  His  first  public  life  was  in  the  pastorate,  then 
he  became  president  of  Delaware  College,  then  professor  in 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York,  from  which  he  was 
called  to  Newark,  N.  J.,  and  in  October,  1853,  became  the 
first  pastor  of  the  South  Park  Presbyterian  Church,  then 
recently  organized,  and  which  enjoyed  his  administrations 
during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  extending  to  his  eightieth  year. 

No  infirmity  incident  to  his  advanced  age  suggested  to  any 
of  his  parishioners  that  he  was  too  old  to  remain  their  pastor 
or  that  a  young  minister  would  be  their  preference.  The 
founders  of  the  church  had  nearly  all  passed  away,  and  his 
large  congregation  was  composed  mainly  of  his  own  spiritual 
children,  all  of  whom  loved  and  revered  him.  He  had  been 
with  them,  as  is  believed,  at  every  communion  season,  and 
rarely  omitted  in  all  these  years  the  monthly  catechetical  in- 
struction of  the  children.  No  wonder  that  his  people,  individ- 
ually and  collectively,  clung  to  him  as  the  prophet  Elisha  clung 
to  his  great  Master. 

Dr.  Wilson's  sermons  were  all  that  would  be  expected  from 
one  of  his  profound  scholarship  and  deep  convictions  of  the 
scriptural  truthfulness  of  the  Calvinistic  system.  He  believed 
that  the  Westminster  standards  were  none  other  than  the  Paul- 
ine teachings  of  the  word  of  God,  and  his  preaching,  while 
characterized  by  a  free  and  full  salvation  for  all  men  was  at 
times  charged  with  solemn  and  affecting  warnings  of  the  wrath 
to  come.  He  shunned  not  to  declare  all  the  counsel  of  God, 
The  closing  sentence  of  his  last  sermon  to  his  people  was,  "  I 
have  now  preached  to  you  one  thousand  times,  and  what  more 
can  I  say  ?  "  and  these  words  are  remembered  by  them  as 
bearing  a  peculiar  significance. 

As  a  man,  he  was  instinct  with  those  social  qualities  which 
endeared  him  to  a  large  circle  beyond  his  own  congregation, 
and  a  Catholic  priest  sent  a  message  to  the  dying  minister  of 
Christ  that  his  church  was  praying  for  him. 


REV,    JAMES   P.    WILSON,    D.    D.  1 23 

While  faithful  and  untiring  to  the  last  in  pulpit  and  parish 
duties,  he  was  abreast  of  the  foremost  of  his  brethren  in  seek- 
ing the  well-being  of  the  community  in  which  he  lived  and  the 
interests  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom  at  home  and  abroad.  He 
honored  his  citizenship,  and  identified  himself  with  the  Law 
and  Order  League  to  promote  the  observance  of  the  civil  Sab- 
bath and  public  morals.  He  was  zealous  in  the  cause  of  de- 
nominational church  extension  within  his  own  Presbyterial 
bounds.  Besides  being  a  director  in  the  Union  Seminary  of 
New  York,  he  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  German  Theo- 
logical School  of  Newark,  served  on  its  most  important  com- 
mittees, and,  on  the  death  of  Dr.  Fewsmith,  became  president 
of  its  Board  of  Directors.  He  never  sought  exemption  from 
any  public  or  presbyterial  duty  on  the  ground  of  advanced  age- 
He  stood  erect  in  the  pulpit  and  on  the  street  the  month  in 
which  he  died,  and  walked  with  as  elastic  a  step,  with  no  staff 
in  his  hand,  as  on  the  day  of  his  first  arrival  in  Newark.  It  was 
a  green  old  age,  and  he  left  the  world,  as  he  had  desired  to  do,  still 
harnessed  to  his  work,  carrying  forward  the  full  load  of  duties 
and  responsibilities. 

Several  years  ago  the  family  secured  an  inexpensive  plat  of 
ground  on  the  borders  of  Lake  George,  on  which  was  erected 
a  modest  cottage  for  a  vacation  resort.  It  was  on  a  return 
from  a  day's  visit  to  this  Summer  home  that  Dr.  Wilson  re- 
ceived his  first  warning  that  the  end  was  near,  and  six  days 
thereafter,  in  great  peace,  took  his  last  look  in  the  faces  of  his 
wife  and  only  child — a  widowed  daughter  and  her  children. 

For  the  church,  who  have  known  no  other  pastor,  our  best 
wish  is  that  his  mantle  may  ere  long  be  taken  up  by  one  who 
in  the  beginning  of  his  pastorate  will  be  able  to  work  as  un- 
tiringly and  devotedly  as  did  his  venerable  predecessor  when  that 
mantle  dropped  from  him.  For  his  bereaved  family  our  prayer 
is  that  the  tender  sympathies  now  so  overflowing  from  that 
large  and  loving  circle  only  less  bereaved  than  themselves  may 
remain  unabated  to  the  end,  and  that  the  divine  Comforter 
may  be  their  unfailing  support. 

The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  at  the  instance  of  one  of 


124  REV.    JAMES    P.    WILSON,    D.    D. 

whose  secretaries  these  memorial  lines  are  penned,  has  lost  a 
member  than  whom  no  other  took  a  deeper  interest  in  its  wel- 
fare. Though  conspicuously  in  its  deliberations  the  silent 
member,  he  was  ever  ready  to  serve  on  committees  requiring 
thorough  investigation  and  the  wisest  counsel.  Though  not 
one  of  that  fold,  yet  as  an  occasional  hearer  the  writer  can  re- 
call no  more  instructive  and  earnest  appeals  in  the  cause  of 
foreign  missions  than  he  has  heard  from  the  pulpit  of  the  South 
Park  Presbyterian  Church  of  Newark. 
Newark,  N.  J.,  June  i,  1889. 


Jlppropriotioiis  for  tlie  Coming  Yeiir. 


In  1832  Charles  Stoddard,  of  Boston,  became  a  member  of 
the  Prudential  Committee  of  the  American  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners for  Foreign  Missions,  and  "from  the  time  of  his 
appointment,"  says  his  biographer,  "  he  never  failed  to  be 
present  in  his  place  at  the  Tuesday  afternoon  meetings  of  the 
Committee."  This  devotion  to  the  interests  of  that  Board 
continued  through  the  remainder  of  his  life,  a  period  of  about 
forty  years.     He  died  in  1872. 

In  one  of  his  letters  to  a  brother,  he  writes:  "  The  work  we 
are  engaged  in  is  a  work  of  faith,  and  eminently  so.  We  spent 
two  days  this  week  in  earnest,  exhausting  labor,  looking  over 
the  estimates  for  all  the  missions,  and  making  appropriations 
for  1870.  These  must  be  made  in  time  to  reach  the  missions 
all  over  the  earth  about  the  first  of  January  each  year.  But 
when  made,  we  have  no  money  on  hand.  How  can  we  know 
what  the  churches  will  give  ?  Whether  they  give  or  not,  the 
missionaries  must  be  fed  and  sustained.  We  trust  in  the 
Lord  Jesus,  whose  servants  we  are.  We  think  He  has  placed 
us  where  we  are,  and  that  He  has  guided  the  missionaries  in 
their  work.  When  we  finished  our  appropriations  and  the 
amount  was  ascertained,  with  one  accord  we  looked  up  to  our 
Master  and  Lord,  and  committed  the  whole  case  to  Him." 

Visiting  the  Mission  House,  53  Fifth  avenue,  one  day  last 
week,  I  came  unexpectedly  upon  a  meeting  of  the  Finance 
Committee  of  our  Foreign  Board,  who  were  engaged  in  the 
same  kind  of  work  referred  to  in  Mr.  Stoddard's  letter.  Upon 
the  table,  around  which  these  business  men  gathered,  were 
many  sheets  of  paper  and  estimates  from  missions  all  over  the 
world,  which  were  there  undergoing  review.  The  Committee 
were  endeavoring  to  adjust   and  reduce  these,  so   that   their 


126  APPROPRIATIONS    FOR    THE    COMING    YEAR. 

aggregate  should  not  go  beyond  a  reasonable  estimate  of  the 
receipts  of  the  coming  year.  That  the  appropriations  asked 
for  by  the  missionaries  would  have  to  be  reduced,  goes  without 
saying,  especially  in  view  of  a  prospective  debt  carried  to  the 
new  year.  Our  Presbyterian  Church  is  not  yet  prepared  to 
overtake  the  expanding  work  in  her  mission  fields.  There  is 
no  money  in  the  treasury  for  the  new  account.  What  is  there, 
and  will  be  there  on  the  30th  inst.,  from  present  outlook,  will 
fall  short  of  covering  deficiences  in  the  old.  When  the  Boards 
therefore,  ratifies  and  transmits  to  the  missions  the  appropria- 
tions, they  perform  an  act  of  faith.  They  cannot  know  what 
the  churches  will  give,  though  they  may  reasonably  look  for  an 
amount  equal  to  the  receipts  of  the  preceding  year,  with  a 
small  percentage  of  advance. 

It  would  be  an  easy  matter  in  adjusting  appropriations,  so  as 
to  equalize  estimated  receipts  and  expenditures,  to  cut  off  from 
the  latter,  all  around,  ten  or  twenty  per  cent.  But  some  of  the 
missions  and  some  departments  of  work,  can  bear  the  knife 
with  less  injurious  effects  than  others,  and  hence  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  details  of  field  work  is  essential  to  a  wise  dis- 
crimination. For  this  knowledge  the  Board,  and  especially  the 
Finance  Committee,  must  rely  mainly  upon  the  executive  ofii- 
cers.  After  final  results  are  reached,  the  Board  may  appropri- 
ately, as  in  the  case  of  the  Prudential  Committee  quoted  above, 
"with  one  accord  look  up  to  our  Master  and  Lord,  and  commit 
the  whole  case  to  Him.'  There  will  be  disappointment  in  some 
mission  fields,  and  should  the  estimated  receipts  from  the 
churches  not  be  realized,  there  will  be  criticisms  at  home  for 
involving  the  Board  in  debt ;  but  the  case  is  now  beyond  human 
review.     The  great  Head  of  the  Church  has  it  in  His  own  hands. 

Newark,  April   18,  1891. 


\  IjeniipceiiGe. 


HOW    I    CAME    TO    BE    TREASURER. 

The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  (O.  S.) 
of  1850  met  in  Cincinnati,  and  was  opened  with  a  sermon  by 
Dr.  Nicholas  Murray,  the  retiring  Moderator.  Drs.  Murray 
and  S.  Irenaeus  Prime  were  my  guests  during  the  sessions  of  the 
Assembly.  The  latter  at  the  time  was  one  of  the  editors  of 
T^e  Presbyterian,  his  connection  with  the  New  York  Observer 
being  suspended  for  a  few  months.  Dr.  Murray  came  to  the 
Assembly  by  way  of  St,  Louis,  where  he  had  received  a  call  to 
the  pastorate  of  one  of  its  churches,  and  which  he  declined  in 
a  letter  written  from  Cincinnati.  He  had  also  been  called  to 
the  recently  organized  Seventh  Presbyterian  Church  of  Cincin- 
nati, and  had  deferred  his  decision  until  after  his  visit.  As  a 
member  and  officer  of  that  church,  the  duty  had  been  assigned 
me  of  corresponding  with  him  and  using  what  arguments  I 
could  to  secure  his  acceptance.  To  this  end  also  I  visited 
him  at  his  home  in  Elizabeth.  In  all  my  mtercourse  with  him 
hope  was  uppermost  that  he  would  accede  to  our  request  and 
become  the  first  pastor  of  our  new  and  promising  church.  On 
his  arrival  in  Cincinnati,  and  after  a  conference  with  our  ses- 
sion and  trustees,  and  preaching  and  administering  the  com- 
munion, this  hope  was  strengthened ;  and  I  know  that  Dr. 
Prime,  who  was  his  close  friend,  and  with  him  for  ten  days 
under  the  same  roof,  then  believed  that  our  call  would  be 
accepted.  Dr.  Murray,  however,  labored  under  one  embarrass- 
ment, which  I  suppose  was  the  controlling  factor  in  leading  to 
his  declination,  which  was  received  shortly  after  his  return  to 
his  home  in  New  Jersey. 

It  was  expected  if  he  became  pastor  of  the  Seventh  Presby- 
terian Church  he  would  also  become  professor  in  the  new  the- 
ological seminary  which   Dr.  N.  L.  Rice  was  endeavoring  to 


128  A    REMINISCENCE. 

establish  in  Cincinnati,  and  for  which  he  had  received  some 
pledges  of  support,  especially  the  co-operation  of  Dr.  James 
Hoge,  of  Columbus.  To  such  enlargement  of  his  sphere  of 
usefulness  Dr.  Murray  could  make  no  objection.  As  he  in- 
formed me,  he  had  one  thousand  carefully  prepared  sermons, 
and  the  opportunity  to  train  young  men  for  the  ministry  would 
have  been  an  inducement  for  his  acceptance.  But  on  the 
way  from  St.  Louis  to  Cincinnati  he  stopped  at  Louisville,  saw 
the  brethren  of  that  place  and  New  Albany,  and  learned  much 
of  the  controversy  then  pending  between  them  and  Dr.  Rice  in 
relation  to  the  projected  Cincinnati  Seminary  and  the  one  then 
established  at  New  Albany,  which  it  was  proposed  to  merge  in 
the  new  enterprise.  He  greatly  loved  his  Kentucky  brethren, 
and  fearing  what  their  conflicts  of  opinion  might  lead  to  in  his 
personal  relations  to  them,  at  length  prudently  concluded  not 
to  identify  himself  with  either  party,  and  thus  the  Seventh 
Presbyterian  Church,  after  long  waiting  and  hoping,  failed  to 
secure  their  pastor-elect. 

In  the  summer  of  that  year  (1850),  while  on  a  visit  to  my 
parents  in  Newark,  I  called  upon  my  friend  Charles  D.  Drake, 
Esq.,  then  Treasurer  of  our  Foreign  Board,  at  23  Centre  street. 
He  informed  me  that  he  had  resigned  that  office  and  was 
about  to  resume  the  practice  of  the  law  in  St.  Louis,  and  more- 
over stated,  much  to  my  surprise,  that  my  name  had  been 
brought  prominently  before  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Board  as  his  successor.  This  was  not  only  a  surprise,  but  at 
first  did  not  meet  my  own  approval. 

Dr.  Murray  was  the  only  member  of  the  Board  known  to  me 
at  the  time,  and  on  calling  on  him  at  Elizabeth  he  informed 
me  that  he  had  attended  the  meeting  of  the  committee  where 
he  nominated  me,  giving  his  reasons  for  so  doing,  and  added, 
in  pleasantry,  "in  retaliation  for  your  attempt  to  draw  me  to 
Cincinnati."  Within  a  day  or  two,  on  request  of  Secretary 
Walter  Lowrie,  I  called  at  the  Mission  House,  when  he 
explained  briefly  the  duties  of  the  office  to  which  he  said  I  had 
been  nominated,  and  expressed  his  own  judgment  that  "next 
to  that  of  preaching  the  gospel,  the  Treasurership  of  the  For- 


A    REMINISCENCE.  I29 

eign  Board  was  the  most  responsible  and  important  office  in 
the  gift  of  the  church."  Just  before  leaving  for  my  home  in 
Cincinnati  there  came  another  message  from  Mr.  Lowrie,  on 
answering  which  he  handed  me  my  commission  as  treasurer. 
Two  or  three  weeks  later  I  sent  him  a  letter  of  acceptance, 
and  removed  East  with  my  family,  and  on  November  i,  1850, 
entered  upon  what  has  since  been  my  life  work  until  June  11, 
1888,  when  my  resignation  took  effect,  though  my  salary  and 
services  for  the  Board  were  continued  until  the  following 
November.  Doubtless,  other  friends  interested  themselves  in 
securing  my  appointment,  though  without  my  knowledge  at  the 
time,  among  them  my  predecessor,  Judge  Charles  D.  Drake. 

Note. — The  late  Judge  Drake  had  prior  to  1850  been  long 
an  intimate  personal  and  family  friend,  and  at  his  death  I  was 
requested  by  the  Board  to  draft  a  memorial  for  its  records, 
which  was  accepted,  adopted,  and  a  copy  transmitted  to  Mrs. 
Drake.     It  is  as  follows  : 

The  name  of  Charles  D.  Drake,  whose  death  occurred  April 
I,  1892,  was  for  over  thirty  years  prominent  in  the  councils  of 
the  nation  and  in  the  assemblies  of  the  elders,  and  for  half 
that  period  as  Chief  Justice  in  one  of  our  Federal  courts.  In 
all  his  civic,  ecclesiastical  and  social  relations  his  Christian 
character  was  conspicuous.  For  two  years  he  was  Treasurer 
of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  which  office 
he  resigned  in  October,  1850,  to  resume  the  profession  of  the 
law  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  where  also  in  1852  he  was  or- 
dained a  ruling  elder  in  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church. 
None  of  the  present  members  of  the  Foreign  Board  were  the 
cotemporaries  of  Mr.  Drake  when  he  had  charge  of  its 
finances,  but  in  this  notice  of  his  death  they  desire  to  repro- 
duce in  their  minutes  the  recorded  testimony  of  the  Fathers 
"of  the  fidelity  with  which  he  performed  the  duties  of  his 
office,  and  of  their  regrets  at  his  withdrawal,"  and  to  add  the 
expression  of  their  tender  sympathy  for  her  who  was  his  help- 
ful companion  in  those  earlier  years  of  service  in  the  Mission 
House,  and  is  now  his  bereaved  widow. 


Resigndtion. 


Mission  House,  23  Centre  Street,  ) 
New  York,  March  21,  1887.      ) 

Rev.  John  D.  Wells,  D.  D., 

President  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Afissions  : 

Dear  Friend  and  Brother — The  last  day  of  October  next 
is  the  beginning  of  the  second  semi-centennial  of  our  Board, 
and  should  I  continue  until  then  it  closes  my  thirty-seven  years 
of  service  as  its  treasurer,  and  finds  me  on  the  western  slope 
of  that  decade  of  human  life  when  the  pride  of  strength  suc- 
cumbs to  labor  and  sorrow.  It  must  be  the  common  judgment 
of  all  that  a  relation  existing  so  long,  and  involving  so  many 
interests  at  home  and  abroad,  should  not  be  severed  suddenly 
and  unexpectedly,  if  by  a  timely  provision  it  can  be  avoided. 
Were  the  duties  of  the  treasuryship  simply  of  a  routine  nature, 
then  the  experience  and  habits  acquired  in  days  of  strength 
might  serve  profitably  far  into  those  of  weakness;  but  the  com- 
plications of  the  office  keep  pace  with  the  advance  of  the  work; 
and  as  the  common  law  cannot  be  codified  by  reason  of  the 
growth  of  civilization,  no  more  can  these  varied  duties  be  held 
by  specific  and  defined  rules.  Hence  the  necessity  of  a  treas- 
urer possessing  discriminating  judgment  combined  with  unim- 
paired mental  and  physical  strength.  Our  secretaries  may  be 
multiplied  to  meet  the  increasing  demands  of  the  work  or  to 
accommodate  the  weakness  of  age,  where  long  experience  and 
mature  judgment  are  of  more  value  than  physical  endurance. 
But  there  can  be  only  one  treasurer — a  single  eye  to  watch  and 
control  the  balance-wheel  of  this  complicated  machinery. 

For  reasons  thus  indicated,  and  these  alone — consulting  only 
members  of  my  own  family — after  much  thought  and  anticipating 


RESIGNATION.  I3I 

many  sad  afterthoughts  for  the  step  now  taken,  I  ask  the  Board 
to  designate  the  time  within  the  remnant  of  my  thirty-seven 
years  of  service,  ending  Nov.  i,  when  I  shall  lay  down  this  office 
and  surrender  the  keys  of  the  treasury  to  my  successor.  Should 
the  Board,  to  prevent  a  vacancy,  reappoint  me  after  the  rising 
of  the  General  Assembly,  such  appointment  will  be  understood 
as  subject  to  the  request  made  in  this  communication. 
Very  respectfully, 

Wm.  Rankin. 

After  the  ist  of  November  following  the  date  of  the  above 
letter,  being  the  time  designated  in  it  for  my  retirement,  as  no 
successor  had  been  selected,  on  request  of  the  Board  I  con- 
tinued temporarily  in  office. 


At  its  meeting  April  23,  1888,  the  following  action  was 
taken: 

Resolved,  i.  That  Mr.  Rankin's  resignation  be  accepted,  to 
take  effect  June  nth,  next. 

2.  That  Mr.  Rankin  be  invited  to  sit  as  an  honorary  member 
of  the  Board,  with  the  privilege  to  participate  in  its  discus- 
sions, and  that  he  have  the  privilege  of  a  desk  in  the  building, 
to  be  used  at  his  discretion. 


Hon.  Hooper  C.  Van  Vorst  also  introduced  the  following, 
which  was  unanimously  adopted: 

Resolved,  That  in  accepting  the  resignation  of  William  Ran- 
kin as  its  treasurer,  after  a  continued  service  in  the  office  for 
upwards  of  thirty-seven  years,  this  Board  directs  to  be  entered 
upon  its  minutes  its  unanimous  expression  of  its  appreciation 
of  the  able,  faithful  and  conscientious  manner  in  which  he 
has,  during  all  the  years  he  has  held  the  office,  discharged  its 
constantly  increasing  and  varied  duties,  and  which  on  account 
of  his  advanced  age  he  now  surrenders.  Mr.  Rankin  has  so 
wisely  managed  the  office  as  to  constitute  himself  and  it  effi- 
cient instruments  in  the  prosecution  of  the  work  of  Foreign 
Missions  in  which  the  church  we  represent  is  engaged. 


132  RESIGNATION. 

ACTION  OF  THE  PRESBYTERY  OF  NEWARK. 

High  St.  Church,  April  6th,  1887. 
"Mr.  Rankin,  who  has  served  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
as  its  Treasurer  for  37  years,  having  presented  the  members  of 
Presbytery  with  a  printed  manual  of  Foreign  Missions,  and 
having  also  informed  the  Presbytery  that  he  had  submitted  his 
resignation  to  the  Board  as  its  treasurer,  the  following  resolu- 
tions were  unanimously  adopted: 

1.  Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Presbytery  be  presented 
to  Elder  William  Rankin  for  his  instructive  and  able  report  on 
Foreign  Missions  made  to  this  body  at  this  time,  and 

2.  Resolved,  also.  That  our  thanks  are  due  to  the  great  Head 
of  the  Church  for  the  able  and  faithful  manner  in  which  Mr. 
Rankin  has  been  enabled  to  administer  his  great  public  trust 
as  the  Treasurer  of  our  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  for  the  past 
thirty-seven  years." 

A  true  copy  from  the  minutes  of  the  Presbytery  of  Newark. 
Attest:  Julius  H.  Wolff,  Stated  Clerk. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF  1888. 

Reported  by  Dr.  Herriek  Johnson,  Chairman  of  the  Standing  Committee. 

"Resolved,  That  we  here  make  record  of  our  heartfelt  grati- 
tude to  God  for  the  long  and  faithful  service  of  Mr.  William 
Rankin,  who  for  nearly  thirty  eight  years  has  been  the  Board's 
capable  and  efficient  Treasurer,  and  who  bears  with  him  in  his 
voluntary  retirement  the  affectionate  and  prayerful  interest  of 
the  entire  Church. 

That  the  resolution  of  the  Assembly  appreciative  of  the  ser- 
vices of  Mr.  William  Rankin  be  suitably  engrossed,  signed  by 
the  Moderator  and  Stated  Clerk,  appropriately  framed  and 
conveyed  to  Mr.  Rankin  by  the  Stated  Clerk." 


Address  Before  llie  Essex  County,  N.  J.,  Bible  Society, 

in  1885. 


We  have  met  on  this  thirty-ninth  anniversary  of  the  Essex 
County  Bible  Society,  which  as  I  trace  its  history,  is  a  continu- 
ation and  enlargement  of  the  Nfewark  Bible  Society,  founded 
in  the  year  1814,  and  has  now  completed  seventy  years  of  con- 
tinuous life  and  growth. 

I  remember  being  present  at  the  ninth  and  tenth  anniversar- 
ies of  the  earlier  organization.  Its  tenth  filled  this  then  newly 
dedicated  house  of  God,  (Third  Presbyterian),  and  was  presided 
over  by  Joseph  C.  Hornblower,  Esq.,  who  later  in  life  became 
chief  justice  of  our  commonwealih.  Its  ninth  was  held  in  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church,  where  the  annual  report  was  read 
by  its  secretary,  a  member  of  the  Essex  County  bar  (Archer 
Gifford,  Esq.,)  and  the  address  was  delivered  by  another 
member  of  the  same  profession  (Wm,  W.  Miller,  Esq.,)  whose 
brilliant  talents  drew  together  a  crowded  assembly.  The  ad- 
dress was  published,  and  passages  from  it  were  reproduced  in 
my  school  exercises  in  declamation.  I  do  not  know  that  the 
practice  is  now  commended  in  our  public  schools  of  advoca- 
ting the  claims  or  free  circulation  of  our  old  English  Bible;  in 
those  early  days  it  was  often  made  a  text  book  for  our  youth, 
and  the  easy  lessons  in  John's  Gospel  became  the  first  reader 
in  the  children's  primary  department.  Thus  the  foundation 
of  our  morals  and  our  laws  was  laid  in  the  teaching  of  the 
word  of  God. 

The  Newark  Bible  Society  was  organized  as  a  purely  benev- 
olent institution,  and  followed  in  the  order  of  time  the  "  Newark 
Female  Charitable  Society,"  which  provided  for  the  bodily  as 
this  for  the  spiritual  destitutions  among  us.  Nor  were  its 
operations  limited  to  the  town,  but  extended  to  destitutions  in 


134      ADDRESS  BEFORE  ESSEX  CO.  N.  J.,  BIBLE  SOCIETY,  1885. 

remote  parts  of  the  county.  Thus  it  widened  its  scope  and  in 
time  received  its  new  and  broader  name.  Then  it  early  was 
made  auxiliary  to  the  American  Bible  Society,  though  its 
senior  in  years,  and  became  one  of  the  streams  flowing  into 
that  capacious  reservoir  which  aims  to  flood  the  world  with  the 
water  of  life. 

We  need  not  stop  to  prove  by  any  process  of  argument  the 
obligations  of  the  world  to  the  Bible.  It  is  light  from  heaven 
to  illuminate  darkness,  and  they  who  have  the  light  are 
charged  with  the  high  trust  of  disseminating  it.  We  accept  as 
true  the  words  of  an  eminent  judge  of  our  Federal  District 
Court  who  presided  over  the  Wycliffe  semi-millennial  celebra- 
tion at  Trenton  in  1880.  Says  Judge  Nixon,  "All  our  person- 
al hopes  and  the  hopes  of  our  children  are  involved  in  accept- 
ing the  doctrines  and  living  the  precepts  of  God's  Holy  word, 
and  all  our  hopes  for  the  country  are  bound  up  in  the  adoption 
of  its  principles  in  the  administration  of  public  affairs."  There 
is  a  beautiful  blending  of  these  two  thoughts  in  the  picture  of 
an  Essex  County  mother  giving  her  son  on  setting  out  in  life  a 
copy  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  that  son  in  after  years  hold- 
ing up  that  same  mother's  gift  as  an  added  sanction  to  the  in- 
augural oath  of  office  as  President  of  the  United  States. 

We  cannot  ignore  the  facts  of  history  or  illustrations  from 
strong  contrasts  and  their  causes  in  national  developments. 
Just  one  hundred  years  before  our  Pilgrim  Fathers  brought  the 
Bible  in  the  Mayflower  to  this  continent  and  founded  our  in- 
stitutions social  and  political  upon  it,  Hernandez  Cortez  erected 
on  its  southeast  coast  a  wooden  crucifix  and  called  the  place 
La  Ville  de  Vera  Cruz — the  town  of  the  true  cross.  Thence 
he  marched  with  sword  and  crucifix  to  the  Aztec  capital,  where 
the  latter  was  planted  through  the  power  of  its  companion,  and 
where  its  influence  under  the  teaching  of  its  priesthood  has 
ever  since  moulded  the  charact^  and  shaped  the  destinies  of 
the  Mexican  people.  The  cross  has  been  held  up,  not  as  the 
symbol  of  Christ,  but  of  the  Mother  of  our  Lord. 

Some  thirty  years  after  the  conquest  there  appeared  a  le- 
gendary form  of  the  Virgin   Mary  as  "our   Lady  of  Guadal- 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  ESSEX  CO.  N.  J.,  BIBLE  SOCIETY,  1 885.      1 35 

oupe,"  who  became  thenceforth  the  patron  goddess  of  Mexico. 
A  magnificent  temple  or  church,  so  called,  was  erected  for  her 
worship,  perhaps  the  most  costly  on  this  continent.  No  open 
Bible  was  ever  exposed  to  view  within  its  walls.  Not  long 
since  I  had  the  opportunity  to  enter  this  shrine  of  "Our  Lady" 
and  witness  its  splendid  service.  Without  attempting  any  de- 
scription of  this  I  recite  the  testimony  of  an  American  minister 
plenipotentiary  to  the  Mexican  government:  "On  the  anniver- 
sary of  this  miracle,"  says  the  Hon.  Waddy  Thompson,  "I  went 
to  the  church  of  Guadaloupe,  where  more  than  50,000  peo- 
ple were  assembled.  Among  them  was  President  Bravo 
and  all  his  cabinet,  the  archbishop,  and,  in  short,  every  person 
of  high  state  in  Mexico.  An  oration  was  delivered  by  a  dis- 
tinguished member  of  the  Mexican  Congress,  who  described 
the  circumstances  of  the  affair  just  as  one  of  our  Fourth  of 
July  orators  would  narrate  the  events  of  the  E  evolution.  The 
President  and  others  exchanged  all  the  while  smiles  and  glances 
of  pride  and  exultation." 

Behold  the  contrast.  Mexico  and  the  United  States  !  These 
two  sister  republics  stand  face  to  face  to-day,  linked  together 
by  iron  bands  and  exhibiting  in  their  national  characteristics 
the  results  of  their  respective  religious  faiths — the  one  the  so- 
called  Roman  Catholic  Apostolic  exclusively,  the  other  an  open 
Bible  and  freedom  to  worship  God.  Until  that  moral  power 
which  was  landed  on  this  continent  from  the  Mayflower  shall 
permeate  the  institutions  of  our  sister  republic  the  contrast  will 
continue,  though  the  interchanges  of  commerce  multiply. 

The  operations  of  our  county  society  during  the  past  year 
are  set  forth  in  the  secretary  and  treasurer's  reports.  The  two 
great  National  Societies,  the  British  and  Foreign  and  the 
American  Bible  Societies,  are  multiplying  translations  of  this 
blessed  book  into  the  languages  of  the  nations,  co-operating 
with  all  missionary  agencies  in  giving  the  Gospel  to  the  world. 

During  the  year  the  revised  version  of  the  Old  Testament 
has  been  published,  after  the  labor  of  fourteen  years  of  emi- 
nent Biblical  scholars.     No  other  book  from  the  press  since  the 


736      ADDRESS  BEFORE  ESSEX  CO.  N.  J.,  BIBLE  SOCIETY,  1885. 

New  Testament  revision  has  created  so  great  an  interest  or 
met  SO  large  a  demand. 

Our  own  Parent  Society  has  been  pushing  its  noble  endeavor 
to  canvass  the  whole  country  with  a  view  to  carry  a  Bible  to 
every  destitute  family,  and  a  million  visitations  are  the  reported 
results  of  the  year.  The  British  Society  has  in  its  own  sphere 
made  an  advance  in  multiplying  and  distributing,  and  cheap- 
ening the  cost  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  unprecedented  by 
anything  done  in  the  past — its  distribution  amounting  to  four 
million  copies.  But  while  these  mighty  and  beneficent  agen- 
cies have  moved  on  with  accelerating  power,  the  year  has  been 
saddened  by  the  removal  of  both  their  distinguished  heads. 
Our  own  Frelinghuysen,  with  honors  clustering  upon  him,  was 
never  more  honored  than  in  his  election  as  President  of  the 
American  Bible  Society.  Alas!  that  it  was  an  election  and 
acceptance  only,  for,  before  any  official  act  by  him,  our  city 
and  State  and  nation  joined  in  a  requiem  over  their  illustrious 
dead.  Later  in  the  year,  since  the  Autumn  leaves  began  to 
fall,  the  venerable  and  saintly  Shaftesbury,  whose  presence  in 
great  feebleness  at  the  last  annual  meeting  of  the  British  So- 
ciety— over  which  he  had  presided  more  than  thirty  consecu- 
tive years — was  an  inspiration,  exchanged  his  earthly  titles  and 
estates  for  a  heavenly  inheritance. 

In  looking  over  the  published  records  of  the  Newark  Bible 
Society  of  1818,  I  find  first  on  the  roll  of  directors  the  name 
that  I  now  bear;  and  I  close  with  an  expression  of  gratitude  to 
my  Maker  that  I  am  the  son  of  one  who  prized  above  all  other 
books  the  Book  of  God. 


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